












LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 


Chap._Copyright No._ 

Shelf._S.J5L5 


UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 


















I 


SPIRITUAL EXERCISES 

FOR A 


TEN DAYS’ RETREAT. 






















SPIRITUAL EXERCISES 


FOR A 


TEN DAYS’ RETREAT, 


For the use of Religious Congregations. 


BY 

Very Rev. RUDOLPH v. SMETANA. 

of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer. 



TWO COPIES RECEIVED 

New York, Cincinnati, Chicago: 

BENZIGER BROTHERS, 

Printers to the Holy Apostolic See. 

‘h- 

2nd 





4404 



IHUbil ©bstat. 

Remy Lafort, 

Censor L ibroruvi. 


imprimatur. 

* Michael Augustine, 

A rchbishop of A'ew York. 


New York, January 14. 1898. 


Copyright, 1898, by Benziger Brothers. 


Contents 


PAGE 

Introductory Remarks, . ... 7 

FIRST DAY. 

First Meditation. The Aim and End of Man, . . 20 

Second Meditation. The Means of Attaining the End, 29 
Third Meditation. The Small Number of Those who 
Attain their End,. 39 

SECOND DAY. 

First Meditation. The Religious Vocation, . 46 

Second Meditation. The Uncertainty of Salvation . 54 

Third Meditation. Divine Grace, . . . 63 

THIRD DAY. 

First Meditation. The Malice of Mortal Sin, . 71 

Second Meditation. The Effects of Mortal Sin, . 79 

Third Meditation. Venial Sin, . .... 86 

FOURTH DAY. 

First Meditation. The Vanity of all Earthly Things, 94 

Second Meditation. Time,.102 

Third Meditation. Death, . . . .110 


(i 


Contents. 


FIFTH DAY. 

PAGE 

First Meditation. The Death-Struggle, .118 

Second Meditation. The Particular Judgment, . .126 

Third Meditation. Purgatory, ...... 134 

SIXTH DAY. 

Ftrst Meditation. Eternity. ..... 142 

Second Meditation. Hell,.150 

Third Meditation. The General Judgment, . . 157 

SEVENTH DAY. 

First Meditation. The Two Standards. . . . 166 

Second Meditation. Lukewarmness, . . 174 

Third Meditation. The Lost Son, ... 183 

EIGHTH DAY. 

First Meditation. The Incarnation of Jesus Christ, 192 
Second Meditation. The Birth of Our Lord, . 200 

Third Meditation. The Hidden Life of Christ, . 209 * 

NINTH DAY. 

First Meditation. Jesus at the Mount of Olives, . 219 
Second Meditation. Jesus on the Cross, . . 228 

Third Meditation. The Sorrowful Mother of God, . 237 

TENTH DAY. 

First Meditation. Ascension of Our Lord, . . 247 

Second Meditation. Heaven, ..... 256 
Last Words. Perseverance, ..... 266 


flntrotmctors? iRemarfts 


IN PREPARATION FOR THE SPIRITUAL 
EXERCISES. 

“ And be ye renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on 
the new man, who according to God, is created in justice and 
holiness of truth” (Ephes. iv. 23, 24). 

When we determine upon any kind of undertak¬ 
ing we are in tlie habit of weighing several consid¬ 
erations : we endeavor to be quite clear as to our 
aim; we estimate the advantages which a success¬ 
ful issue is likely to bring us, and also the disad¬ 
vantages which might ensue if we are negligent and 
careless; we consider the ways and means by which 
we are most likely to attain our end. All this is 
unnecessary in the matter of these spiritual exer¬ 
cises. Their aim, as we know already, is none 
other than our inward spiritual renewal. The 
means to this end are equally self-evident and do 
not call for any comment. The chief point is, that 
we should be thoroughly convinced of how neces¬ 
sary and profitable it is for us and of how much 
depends upon our being really renewed in the 
spirit of our minds. For the keener our sense of 
the importance of an undertaking, the greater is 
the eagerness we display in its pursuit. The use¬ 
fulness of spiritual exercises is so very apparent 


8 Introductoi'y Remarks 

that no one who has any knowledge of the matter 
and who possesses a sound and believing mind 
could remain in any doubt about it. Since the sin 
of our first parents, our nature has become like 
the ground of the earth which the Lord God has 
cursed because of this deed, that it should bring 
forth only thorns and thistles. The ground of our 
souls, too, of itself brings forth no good thing. 
We have, as it were, to conquer it by work and 
conflict, and it demands our constant and labori¬ 
ous care if we are to keep it from returning to 
its former condition. Unceasingly have good 
thoughts, desires, and resolutions to be implanted 
in the heart, and to be cultivated by prayer and 
other spiritual exercises; unceasingly has self- 
love, in its unreasonable excesses, to be cut down 
and evil desires to be weeded out, if the garden of 
our soul is not to become again an unfruitful and 
barren wilderness. The old Adam, the natural, 
sensual man, lives and moves daily and hourly in 
the law of our members; he never ceases after 
his fashion, i.e., in a natural, sensual manner to 
think, to desire, and to strive within us. The new 
and spiritual man, therefore, created after God, 
must never be idle, he must never cease to live by 
faith, to think by faith, to strive and to desire, and 
daily and hourly to seek to conquer the motions of 
nature by the motions of grace. Rightly asks the 
Apostle of every Christian, that his life should be 
a constant renewal of the spirit. And it is not 
here a question of mere nominal Christians. 
Among those, too, who are quite sincere in pur- 


In Preparation for the Spiritual Exercises. 9 

pose there are bnt few who entirely obey the 
Apostle’s injunction. Most men are so occupied 
with their temporal affairs that they devote to 
those exercises neither that time nor attention 
nor zeal without which the constant renewal of the 
spirit is impossible. The inevitable consequence 
is that faith gradually grows weaker, that the in¬ 
fluence of eternal truths upon the practical life is 
diminished, and that love grows colder; that the 
purely natural life, on the other hand, so increases 
in power that those who are really concerned about 
their salvation begin to feel the need of a very 
extraordinary renewal of the inner man. 

But however self-evident this may appear, some 
doubt might be entertained whether it fully applies 
to us who are members of a religious community. 
In the first place the business and cares of our 
calling are not so disturbing and distracting to the 
mind as those of the ordinary life; they are not so 
apt to draw it away from spiritual things; they 
are, on the contrary, calculated constantly to recall 
them to our minds. We have, in the second place, 
so many daily spiritual exercises which aim at the 
renewal of the soul, that those who perform them 
with anything like zeal will find in them helps 
enough not merely for a superficial but for a thor¬ 
ough and complete daily inward renewal. Indeed, 
it might be reasonably maintained that our life, 
regulated as it is by rule, is practically one of in¬ 
cessant spiritual exercise. The appearance of 
things would certainly seem to support this plea, 
but it vanishes away before a better knowledge of 


10 Introductory Remarks 

the human heart and a truer apprehension of the 
nature of the spiritual life. 

Kespecting the first point, it is true that our 
duties are less distracting to the mind, and that 
they are, in large measure, of a spiritual nature. 
Still there are temporal duties which bring us in 
touch with the outer world and which do not tend 
to our sanctification. “He that touchetli pitch, 
shall be defiled with it,” says the son of Siracli 
(Ecclus. xiii. 1). All earthly things are like dust, 
which adheres to our clothes and our furniture and 
to everything that may be in our house. We can¬ 
not see whence it comes and 1 iow t it is caused, and 
yet in a short time it has enveloped us with its 
delicate veil and has penetrated into the remotest 
corners and folds. In a similar invisible manner 
the dust of earthly intercourse adheres to the spirit, 
however much we may seek to guard against it; it 
penetrates into the most secret recesses of our 
spiritual being or gradually dulls the clear look of 
faith, here and there soiling even the purity of the 
heart. But any impurity thus adhering hinders 
the soul’s free ascent to God. “For the bewitch¬ 
ing of vanity obscuretli good things,” says the 
Book of Wisdom (iv. 12). Everything earthly 
exercises a kind of charm over man and by the 
alluring power of the senses draws him down to 
the low level of a purely natural religion, in order 
that it may retain him there. And it requires the 
living faith of a saint to be able to stand forth in 
that charmed circle and to remain pure and unde¬ 
filed by all the influences of its invisible power. 


In Preparation for the Spiritual Exercises. 11 

And even the saints have not always been able to 
endure it for any great length of time; even they 
have experienced a diminution of their inner life, 
when outward duties had for any prolonged period 
engaged their attention. They have had to with¬ 
draw from the world from time to time in order to 
purify their hearts from earthly dust, and then by 
the serious and continued contemplation of eternal 
verities to free them from the hidden and subtle 
deceit of the world. 

As regards the other point, it is also true that 
we have many daily exercises which all aim at the 
renewal of the soul and which should in them¬ 
selves be sufficient to sanctify us. But whether 
they do actually effect what they may be expected to 
effect is quite a different question and one which, 
as a rule, must be answered in the negative. So 
far, therefore, from proving that we are in less need 
of an occasional and very thorough renewal than 
persons in the world, it proves the very opposite, 
more especially when we bear in mind that higher 
degree of perfection which our vocation demands 
of us. 

Persons in the world find ready help in the ordi¬ 
nary means of grace, because they only resort to 
them occasionally, and consequents remain more 
responsive to their renewing and invigorating 
power. But we are like those sick persons who 
take so much and such strong medicines that their 
system accommodates itself - to them and no longer 
experiences from them any sensible effect. We are 
like those epicures whose palates can no longer be 


12 Introductory Remarks 

stimulated by the most costly and tasty dishes be¬ 
cause they are set before them day after day. We 
are like the Jews in the desert, who ultimately 
turned away from the manna which rained down 
for them from heaven because it constituted their 
daily food. Indeed, it is a standing complaint 
among all persons in religion that a certain me¬ 
chanical tone is apt gradually to creep into their 
religious exercises, that oral prayers are repeated 
without thought, that the most vivid spiritual con¬ 
siderations fail to convey sufficient nourishment to 
the soul, that the most beautiful readings do not 
warm the heart, the most determined resolutions 
are not persisted in, and that frequently the most 
sacred mysteries of the faith are insufficient to 
rouse the soul from its slumber of apathy and in¬ 
difference. And how can we look for renewal from 
means the use of which itself necessitates renewal? 
When the spices by which we render our food 
tasty become insipid and tasteless, what flavor are 
they likely to impart to it ? When the iron on 
which we want to sharpen a blade has itself become 
rusty, what sort of an edge is it likely to give to the 
blade ? When the beam which is to support a de¬ 
fective building has itself become rotten and de¬ 
cayed, what support is it likely to give to the 
house ? “ No man putteth new wine into old bot- 

les: otherwise the new wine will break the bottles, 
and it will be spilled, and the bottles will be lost. 
But new wine must be put into new bottles, and 
both are preserved” (Luke v. 37, 38). It must be 
evident that under such circumstances we require 


In Preparation for the Spiritual Exercises. 13 

some extraordinary means lying outside tlie ordi¬ 
nary course of tilings, and one which is calculated 
to renew and quicken and impart savor to what is in 
ordinary use. Such means we possess in spiritual 
exercises, especially those according to the method 
of St. Ignatius. 

But it would be- superfluous to continue meeting 
objections in order to show from the very nature of 
things the exceeding usefulness of the exercises 
even for the regular clergy. The most convincing 
proofs would probably be found to be those which 
are based upon authority and experience, such as 
the approval of the Apostolic Chair, who has com¬ 
mended the spiritual exercises to all believing 
Christians, especially to priests and members of 
congregations, and has attached to them many in¬ 
dulgences ; the unanimous testimony of all relig¬ 
ious teachers, who pronounce them to be one of 
the very best means for attaining salvation and 
perfection; the example of the saints throughout 
the later centuries, who have used them for this 
purpose; the practice of so many, including the 
contemplative Orders, who make an inward spir¬ 
itual renewal almost an annual practice, and finally 
the blessed and extraordinary effects which have 
invariably been wrought in all those who have 
brought to the exercises a single purpose and an 
honest desire. And if, according to the evangeli¬ 
cal precept, a tree may be known by its fruit, this 
experience alone must be to us a manifest and 
sufficient proof of the excellence of the exercises. 
We may even draw from them the well-founded con- 


14 


Introductory Remarks 


elusion that the divine blessing rests upon them 
no less than upon missions, and that Divine Provi¬ 
dence has purposely reserved these two institu¬ 
tions for these later times in order to make them, 
amid the corruptions of the age, a most effectual 
and powerful means of grace. 

Let us, therefore, thank the Divine Goodness 
which has not only made this means of grace ac¬ 
cessible to us, but which has also by our holy rules 
ordered their use for us as a duty ; let us also seek 
by hearty co-operation to further the divine inten¬ 
tion. Almighty God undoubtedly prepares for us 
in these holy exercises many and great graces, but 
it is without doubt His will that we should render 
ourselves worthy of them by earnest preparation 
and by a diligent application of all the faculties of 
our nature. It is not a question of having once 
again practised our annual exercises, but that we 
should really be renewed in the spirit of our minds 
and that we should as it were gather a store of 
grace for the entire year to come. None of us can 
tell what struggles, trials, and temptations may be 
awaiting us in the coming year. The enemy of 
our souls never rests, but incessantly goes about 
like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, 
and considering the character of the times in 
which we live, we should always be prepared and 
on our guard. When the hour of trial has come, 
it is for the most part too late to make preparation. 
When the enemy is already at the very gates of the 
city, it is no longer possible to fortify it; and if he 
has already drawn the sword, there is no time to 


In Preparation for the Spiritual Exercises. 15 

buckle on tlie armor. “ Go to the ant, O slug¬ 
gard,” says Solomon, “and consider her ways and 
learn wisdom; which, although she hath no guide, 
nor master, nor captain, providetli her meat for 
herself in the summer and gatlieretli her food in 
the harvest. How long wilt thou sleep, O slug¬ 
gard ? When Avilt thou rise out of thy sleep? 
Thou wilt sleep a little, thou wilt slumber a little, 
thou wilt fold thy hands a little to sleep: and want 
shall come upon thee, as a traveller, and poverty 
as a man armed” (Prov. vi. 6-11). 

Let us therefore take heed, too, lest at this time 
of harvest we fold our hands and give ourselves up 
to sloth. Our Lord holds in His hands not only 
the keys of mercy with which to open the door of 
grace, He has also the keys of justice with which 
to close it. There comes a season of winter when 
the time of reaping is past, and when spiritual 
need and poverty in a terrible manner overwhelm 
those who have neglected the time of harvest. The 
history of the Blessed Margaret Alacoque, the 
foundress of the devotion to the Most Sacred Heart 
of Jesus, furnishes a very striking illustration of 
’this truth. The Church had passed her final judg¬ 
ment on the life of this great servant of God, and 
its records are chiefly drawn from what she has 
herself written in holy obedience, the Lord Him¬ 
self having expressly declared it to be His will 
that she should make known the extraordinary 
graces He had bestowed upon her in order that 
they might hereafter become a constant source of 
devotion to the faithful. Foy since the revelations 


16 


Introductory Remarks 


contained in this saint’s history bear upon them 
every mark of truthfulness, and as they have refer¬ 
ence chiefly to persons in religion, we shall not 
fail to make use of some of them for the purpose 
of devotion in the course of these exercises. On 
one occasion, when the inmates of the convent at 
Paray, in which Blessed Margaret lived, were about 
to hold the annual exercises, Our Lord caused one 
of the Sisters to be exhorted through her to make 
good use of the graces He would bestow upon 
them by this means, since those who neglected 
them would, like withered trees, bear no more 
fruit. Our Lord added that, although such de¬ 
serted souls continued to receive from Him occa¬ 
sional glimpses of light, which enabled them to 
recognize the sad state of their souls, they never¬ 
theless did not receive with it that conquering 
grace without which they must either fall into 
despair or become dead to a sense of their own 
misery. May these words sink deep into our 
hearts. It would be difficult to say anything that 
is more calculated to quicken and stimulate our 
zeal in regard to these exercises. If those who 
have lost the grace of their vocation had devoted 
more zeal to the exercises last practised in the con¬ 
gregation, this great misfortune would most cer¬ 
tainly never have overtaken them. As regards the 
method that should be observed with a view to 
making the exercises of the greatest possible bene¬ 
fit, let each follow the advice of his director and 
of that Holy Spirit who will certainly make His 
voice heard wherever He finds a heart in temporal 


In Preparation for the Spiritual Exercises. 17 

and spiritual loneliness. For it is written in the 
prophet Osee (ii. 14): “ I will lead her into the 
wilderness and I will speak to her heart. ” 

There is, however, one rule applicable to all of 
us, and that is that the exercises should be made 
in faith. This is secured by renouncing our 
natural judgment and by holding strictly to the 
prescribed order, even though it should seem ex¬ 
pedient to modify it in one point or another. 
Since it has pleased Almighty God to attach His 
blessing to this prescribed order, we must take the 
blessing in the manner in which He sends it and 
not attempt to limit it in any way by our own 
doings, else our obstinacy might easily deprive us 
of its most perfect fruit. “ Why have we fasted, 
and Thou hast not regarded?” the Chosen People 
ask of their Lord by the mouth of the prophet 
Isaias. “ Why have we humbled our souls and 
Thou hast not taken notice?” And He answers: 
“ Behold in the day of your fast, your own will is 
found” (Is. lviii. 3). It is further necessary that 
we should deny our natural inclinations and allow 
ourselves to be neither too much encouraged nor 
too much discouraged by the changing disposition 
of our minds. Many enter upon the exercises with 
sensible joy; the}' are so conscious of the need of 
spiritual renewal that the prospect of satisfying it 
fills them with unspeakable comfort. A similar 
feeling accompanies them throughout the exer¬ 
cises. However much they may experience the 
biting force of the truths under consideration, they 
are nevertheless sensible of their salutary character, 


18 Introductory Remarks 

and rejoice over tliem like some sick man who is 
content to use the most bitter and unpalatable 
remedies, provided he perceives the sickness to be 
broken, the body cleansed from poisonous matter, 
and health gradually being restored. Others, on 
the other hand, dominated by their natural feel¬ 
ings, enter upon the exercise with extreme dislike; 
throughout the entire course they have to wage 
war against their feelings of repugnance, and they 
only experience the burden of the practice, they 
do not taste of the sweetness of its fruit. It seems 
to them as though the effort were useless, seeing 
that the divine truths appear to make no impres¬ 
sion upon their minds. Now, the former ma3^ 
thank God for the interior motion and illumination 
which render the exercises such an easy task. The 
gift is a good one so long as they do not yield too 
much to these feelings and never lose sight of the 
fact that the real aim of the exercises is not spir¬ 
itual comfort and consolation, but purity of heart 
and a new walk of life founded on firm and earnest 
resolutions. The others may thank God likewise 
for the resistance of their nature, against which 
they are seeking to contend. This too is a hidden 
good sometimes, yea, a better gift, provided they 
do not cease to fight manfully and to make honest 
efforts. Experience teaches that all who thus make 
the exercises in faith derive the greatest possible 
benefit from them, in spite of their coldness; and 
this they will discover to their joy by the fruits 
they bear. Indeed, the less visibly and sensibly 
grace works, the more powerful and abiding are 


In Preparation for the Spiritual Exercises. 19 

for the most part its effects. We can, therefore, 
only pity those with whom neither faith nor the 
sense of need are a stimulus to earnestness, and 
who cannot even rouse themselves for the short 
space of ten days, but practise these exercises with 
the same mechanical indifference with which they 
are in the habit of performing their ordinary re¬ 
ligious devotions. They are to be pitied because 
there is a danger lest there happen unto them what 
the prophet Jeremias pronounced over the city of 
Babylon : “ We would have cured Babylon, but she 
is not healed; let us forsake her” (Jer. li. 9). Let 
us then enter upon these holy exercises with all 
the power of a living faith, with firm confidence 
in the power and goodness of Almighty God, 
whose arm is not shortened, and at the same time 
with a firm determination to co-operate with Him 
loyally and zealously. May our sweetest Mother 
Mary, our holy father Alphonsus, and all our holy 
patrons and guardian angels attend us and assist 
us so that we may be strengthened in our weakness 
through their intercessions. And Our Lord Him¬ 
self, to make literal use of the prayer of the holy 
Apostle St. Paul on behalf of the Thessalonians: 
“ Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God and Our 
Father who hath loved us, and hath given us ever¬ 
lasting consolation and good hope in grace, exhort 
your hearts and confirm you in every good work 
and word” (2 Thess. ii. 15). 


jfirst Dap. 

FIRST MEDITATION. 

THE AIM AND END OF MAN- 

“For God created man incorruptible, and to the image of 
His own likeness He made him” (Wis. ii. 23). 

First Point. 

Who am I ?—Whence am I ?—Wherefore am I ? 
These are the important questions which force 
themselves upon evert’ man’s attention immediately 
he begins to reflect. Those who never concern 
themselves with these questions are either lacking 
in sense or they purposely repress such thoughts, 
because they are entirely immersed in the material 
life and are anxious to escape unpleasant reminders. 
But whence are we ? The Psalmist makes answer: 
“ Know ye that the Lord, He is God: He made us 
and not we ourselves” (Ps. xcix. 3). This truth 
would appear to be self-evident; still very many 
persons live as though they were their own creators 
and lords, and as though they owed duties and 
thanks for their existence to no one. But it is 
God who created us. What determined Him in 
this act ? Could He have desired to increase 
thereby His own power and blessedness like some 
king whose greatness and might are in proportion 


21 


The Aim and End of Man . 

to the number of his subjects and the splendor of 
his servants ? N o; faith teaches that God is most 
blessed in Himself and that His blessedness can 
experience no increase. “Thou art my God,” ex¬ 
claims the Royal Prophet, “ for Thou hast no need 
of my goods” (Ps. xv. 2). God has no need of 
our services and of our worship; we cannot by 
them give Him anything that He does not already 
possess, for, as St. Paul says: He “ is the blessed 
and only Mighty, the King of kings and Lord of 
lords” (1 Tim. vi. 15). 

Or did we perhaps merit our creation ? Impos¬ 
sible ; for we were made out of nothing; we were 
nothing before our creation; nothing can merit 
nothing. Only love that loves without having first 
been loved; only grace which bestows freely, could 
have induced God to call us into being. 

If we ask further how we were created, the Holy 
Scriptures teach us: “ Amd God created man to 
His own image” (Gen. i. 27). We possess a soul, 
spiritual in nature like God, immortal like God; 
capable of knowing, of willing, and of loving like 
God. The spirit of man seeks to search out and 
penetrate all things both on earth and in heaven in 
time and in space. His heart and the craving of 
his heart may in a sense be called infinite, for God 
alone can fill it and satisfy it. His body too, al¬ 
though formed of coarse material, has been raised 
to a liiglier dignity and has attained a certain God¬ 
likeness, since Jesus Christ the incarnate Son of 
God has deigned to unite Himself with man. 
Rightly, therefore, says a holy Father of the 


22 


First Day; First Meditation. 

Church : “ All other creatures are merely traces as 
it were and footsteps of the Deity; man alone was 
created in His likeness.” 

If we ask finally: Wherefore were we created ? 
faith answers: Man was created to love God here 
in this world, to serve Him, and to be happy with 
Him forever in the next. This is the only answer 
which satisfactorily solves the riddle of our life; it 
is at the same time the grandest, the noblest, and 
the most lofty destiny which our minds can con¬ 
ceive. For can there be anything greater than to 
serve Him, who is the supreme Lord and Kuler of 
all things; to love Him who Himself is Love; to 
hereafter possess Him for all eternity, who is the 
highest good and the good of all goods ? In what¬ 
ever form, therefore, we may put the question as 
to the end and purpose of our being, we have 
always cause for praising and glorifying God for 
the blessing of being and to consecrate to His ser¬ 
vice all the powers of our life. Justice demands 
this, since we are His handiwork; gratitude de¬ 
mands it, since He has endowed us with so many 
excellent gifts; rational self-love demands it, since 
we could not otherwise hope to be happy here or 
hereafter. 

Second Point. 

Everything in this world is only in so far good 
and perfect in its way as it fulfils its purpose and 
serves it. A vessel serves to hold liquid: if it has 
a crack or is split tip, however beautiful and artis¬ 
tic its form it is nevertheless a useless vessel, and 
the fashioner will destroy it in anger and cast it 


23 


The Aim and End of Man. 

into the fire. A fruit-tree serves to bear good and 
wholesome fruit: if it does not bear such, it is a 
useless tree, however beautiful its growth and foli¬ 
age, and it onlj' cumbers the ground, takes away 
the nourishment from other trees, and the gardener 
will cut it down and cast it into the fire. A servant 
serves to perform punctually the daily task imposed 
upon him by his master: if he fails to perform it, he 
may be ever so active and clever in other things, he 
is nevertheless a useless servant and the master of 
the house will cast him forth and give him his por¬ 
tion with hypocrites. 

In just the same way man’s perfection consists 
in his fulfilling his destiny and in faithfully serv¬ 
ing Him, who has with His own hands fashioned 
him like a vessel, who has planted him like a fruit- 
tree in the garden of His holy Church, and has like 
unto a servant appointed to him his daily task. If 
he fails to do this, he may be performing ever so 
many and seemingly great works, he remains nev¬ 
ertheless a worthless creature, kept merely unto 
the day of wrath and divine vengeance. Let a 
successful conqueror achieve the most brilliant vic¬ 
tories, subdue cities and empires, and fill the whole 
world with the glory of his deeds; let some other 
mighty one of the earth manifest his skill by a 
mild and peaceful rule, by passing wise laws, creat¬ 
ing useful institutions, and erecting magnificent 
buildings and monuments; let a talented explorer 
penetrate into the most hidden secrets of nature, 
make the most startling discoveries, and bring all 
the powers of the elements into the service of man: 


24 First Day; First Meditation. 

if such great and renowned persons only seek 
self in their works, they are nothing before God, 
and their names and deeds are mere empty leaves 
in the book of life. If, on the other hand, there 
be anywhere some poor, old, lonely widow lying in 
a wretched hovel, forsaken by men, but in the 
midst of her trials and sufferings remaining sub¬ 
missive before God; if there be anywhere in field 
or stable some simple peasant woman performing 
her daily task with a single mind, and, in the inno¬ 
cence of her heart, knowing and loving nothing on 
earth but Jesus the Crucified; if there be anywhere 
in the isolation of some religious house a devout 
brother keeping his soul untouched by earthly 
things and hallowing each stej) by holy obedience, 
we have in them those simple and humble souls 
who are nothing before the world but who are great 
before God; they are “unknown and yet known,” 
as the Apostle expresses it; unknown before men, 
but well known before God (2 Cor. vi. 8), for their 
names and deeds stand recorded in the book of life. 
And even here on earth it is frequently they who, 
by the sweet savor of their prayers and virtues, 
and their entire walk of life, turn away the wrath 
of God and divert the course of His judgment, and 
who have therefore a far greater influence on the 
fate of their fellow-men than those who imagine 
that they rule the world by their influence or sta¬ 
tion, or by the power of their wisdom and intellect. 

It is not a question of our accomplishing much 
or of our achieving something great and wonderful; 
but it is a question of each filling the place or 


25 


The Aim and End of Man. 

cornei' assigned to liim by a wise Providence, and 
of doing at all times, in all places, in every posi¬ 
tion, and at every moment what in the singleness 
of our hearts we conceive to be the will of God. 
He who gains the victory over himself in the small¬ 
est matter or who roots out from his heart the least 
unlawful passion, says the blessed author of “ The 
Spiritual Combat,” pleases God far more than if 
he converted thousands and thousands of souls but 
omitted to do these things. For even though the 
conversion of many souls be in itself considered 
more acceptable to God than some small victory 
over self, that alone can, in the entire order of 
things, please Him whereby man fulfils His most 
holy will. And if He chooses in any matter to 
dispense with our co-operation, He can, in His 
omnipotence, find innumerable ways and means 
of accomplishing His purposes. “ 1 beseech you, 
therefore, brethren,” says St. Paul to the Romans 
(xii. 1, 2), "by the mercy of God, that you present 
your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing unto 
God, your reasonable service. And be not con¬ 
formed to this world: but be reformed in the new¬ 
ness of your mind: that you maj r prove what is 
the good and the acceptable and the perfect will 
of God.” 

Third Point. 

It still remains for us to consider more fully 
who we really are; and this consideration will be 
especially profitable to us as a starting-point of our 
spiritual exercises. For we desire to have a few 
days’ intimate intercourse with God and to obtain 


26 


First Day; First Meditation . 

graces from Him. But He will only deem us 
worthy of His condescension in proportion as we 
humble ourselves before Him and acknowledge our 
nothingness; for He gives grace to the humble, He 
resists the proud, He fills the hungry with good 
things, and the rich He sends empty away. A few 
years ago we were nothing; and although now 
we are something, the manner in which we be¬ 
came something is most humiliating for us, and 
our entrance into life is anything but worthy and 
dignified. So far as our bodies are concerned, we 
appear in this world covered with filth and un¬ 
cleanness - more helpless than any new-born 
animal, incapable of maintaining our life without 
external aid. The wants of the body are the only 
needs of which the new-born child is conscious, and 
their gratification and all that is connected with 
the mere animal life are the only sensations of 
which it is capable and for which it is receptive; 
and these wants it expresses by crying. “ I my¬ 
self also,” says Solomon in the Book of Wisdom 
(vii. 1-6), “am a mortal man like all others, and of 
the race of him that was first made of the earth, 
and in the womb of my mother I was fashioned to 
be flesh. . . . And being born I drew iu the common 
air and fell upon the earth, that is made alike, and 
the first voice which I uttered was crying, as all 
others do. I was nursed in swaddling-clothes and 
with great cares. For none of the kings had any 
other beginning of birth. For all men have one 
entrance into life and the like going out.” 

The bravest warrior, therefore, the wisest states- 


27 


The Aim and End of Man. 

man, the profoundest philosopher, the greatest 
genius was once a child lying in swaddling-clothes 
in his cradle, and having no other thought or de¬ 
sire than to be fed with his mother’s milk at the 
proper seasons. 

More humiliating still is the moral state in which 
we are born. We all of us enter this world stained 
with original sin, as the enemies of God and the 
children of wrath. It is true that in holy Baptism 
these stains are washed away without our own 
doing and deserving, and that the punishment is 
wiped out; but the disorder which it has wrought 
in the powers of our souls is not thereby effaced. 
This disorder is in itself the source of innumerable 
weaknesses, which are apt to adhere to the greatest 
minds and which often make them the object of 
pity and ridicule. The depravity of the will, 
moreover, produces that far baser and more hurt¬ 
ful fruit, actual sin. By sin man not only sinks 
lower than the animal, but even lower than inani¬ 
mate creation, for all created things fulfil the will 
of God in the order assigned to them; man alone 
resists that will and misuses his liberty by trans¬ 
gressing the divine commandments. AVhen he has 
once turned away from God and has given himself 
over to the indulgence of his passions, anything 
becomes possible with him, and both experience 
and history teach that he then becomes more cruel 
and bloodthirsty, more cunning and lustful than the 
very beasts of the field. Yes, by sin man becomes 
less than nothing, for it is better not to be at all, 
than to be and to resist God. And sin is the only 


28 First Day; First Meditation . 

tiling we may call our own. Everything else that 
may appear good or worthy in us belongs to God. 
Our innate natural gifts are His gifts, since He 
has created us out of nothing; those acquired after¬ 
ward are sent by His all-directing Providence; 
our virtues are implanted within us by His grace, 
and all our good works too are only performed by 
the assistance of His grace, since we cannot even 
conceive of any good originating in ourselves: 
“ Or what hast thou,” asks the Apostle, “ that thou 
hast not received ? And if thou hast received, 
why dost thou glory as if thou liadst not received 
it?” (1 Cor. iv. 7.) Truth then compels each one 
of us to confess: I have no merit which I could 
ascribe to myself; I have nothing in myself which 
as my own achievement is worthy of honor and 
love; I have no well-founded reason for thinking 
highly of myself. On the contrary, I have innu¬ 
merable just and true grounds for despising and 
humbling myself. It is true that the dignity of 
human nature, of which we bear the impress in 
ourselves, is great and lofty beyond expression, 
because it is the image of God and is sanctified by 
the Incarnation of the Divine Word; but this is 
all the more reason for us to humble ourselves, 
seeing that this lofty dignity has been marred and 
that the image of God has been defiled. A real 
appreciation of man’s dignity does not, therefore, 
consist in the esteem of self, but in the earnest 
effort to retain and to increase within us this God¬ 
likeness, and to restore it by penance and humility 
when it has become effaced. Rightly, therefore, 


The Mean3 of Attaining the End. 29 

says St. Paul (Gal. vi. 3): “For if any man think 
himself to be something, whereas he is nothing, he 
deceiveth himself. ” 


SECOND MEDITATION. 

THE MEANS OF ATTAINING THE END. 

“He created her [wisdom] in the Holy Ghost and saw her, 
and numbered her, and measured her. And He poured her 
out upon all His works and upon all flesh, according to his 
gift" (Ecclus. i. 9, 10). 


First Point. 

When we view the older and beaut^y of nature 
around us—her oneness and manifoldness; when 
we consider the innumerable creatures which move 
and have their being in her, the countless powers 
and forces which are at work in her womb, we ask 
ourselves, Wherefore is all this? Reason and 
faith answer: Ultimately for the honor and glory 
of God first of all, and to help man to achieve his 
end. It exists in order that the law, which finds 
in man as the image of God its crown and comple¬ 
tion, be step by step fulfilled. It exists that man 
might preserve his natural life and exercise his 
powers of body and mind. It exists that it may 
serve him as a sphere of probation and conflict. 
In short, it exists that man may attain his final 
end. The entire unconscious creation is to serve 
him as its lord, while he, conscious and free, is to 
serve the highest Lord. This was God’s divine 
thought when He created the world. “ Thou hast 


30 First Day; Second Meditation . 

made him a little less than the angels, Thou hast 
crowned him with glory and honor: and hast set 
him over the works of Thy hands” (Ps. viii. 6, 7). 
However vast, according to the calculations of as¬ 
tronomers, the heavenly bodies may be, however 
much they may surpass our earth in size and cir¬ 
cumference, the earth is nevertheless the home of 
the Lord of Creation, and the place where the 
Incarnate Redeemer lived and suffered. It is 
superior, therefore, to all the other planets. Holy 
Scripture testifies in the Book of Deuteronomy 
(iv. 19) that the Lord God created the sun and 
the moon and all the stars of heaven for the service 
of all the nations that are under heaven. Our 
sense of their immensity originates in our human 
methods of calculation. Before the omnipotence 
of God nothing is either small or great. The light 
of a candle lighting up the smallest room is no less 
wondrous a work of His hands than the great 
lamps in the firmament of Heaven lighting the 
whole of the human race. It was as easy for the 
omnipotence of God to create the one as the other. 
By a single act of adoration and love God is more 
glorified than by the dumb praise offered to Him 
by His unconscious creation. 

That fair relation originally existing between 
nature and man now exists no more. When Adam 
had committed the first sin, the Lord cursed the 
earth because of this deed. Thorns and thistles 
was it commanded to bring forth and to rise up in 
rebellion against him who had rebelled against his 
Lord. Of its own free-will nature obeys man no 


31 


The Means of Attaining the End. 

longer; he lias to conquer it in the sweat of his 
brow. Still more did she become his adversary 
in spiritual things; for she has ceased to be his 
helpmeet in the praise and service of God. She is 
always seeking to draw his heart away from God, 
and by dazzling and fascinating his senses to en¬ 
tangle him in the net of earthly desires. By the 
fall she has become the slave and helpmeet of 
Satan, and has passed under the rule of the powers 
of darkness. Her power has thus become so 
much greater since by sin man came to be at war 
with himself, and his flesh rebelled against his 
spirit. By that fleshly nature which is of the 
earth he is tempted both from within and from 
without and in the very law of his members. But 
if the mischief caused by sin was great, salva¬ 
tion by redemption was still greater. Where sin 
abounded, grace did much more abound. Our 
Saviour, Jesus Christ, has restored all things and 
in such a manner that they are better than they 
were before. By His death and passion He has 
taken away the curse of original sin, has wiped out 
its guilt and punishment, has overcome death and 
hell, and has torn mankind away from the bondage 
of Satan. It is true that in spite of this the evil de¬ 
sires of our earthly nature continue to cleave to us, 
still they cannot, according to the holy Council 
of Trent, hurt those who, by the grace of Jesus 
Christ, successfully strive against them. On the 
contrary, they will serve to promote their salvation, 
since they give them opportunities of meriting by a 
victorious conflict eternal bliss. And if the power, 


32 First Day ; Second Meditation. 

the subtlety, and the resistance of the enemies we 
have to contend with be great and terrible, how 
much more glorious is the triumph of grace through 
victory, how much greater our merit, how much 
more abundant our reward in Heaven! 

Second Point. 

Still more wonderful than the kingdom of nature 
is the kingdom of grace in the supernatural order. 
Here everything aims directly at promoting man’s 
salvation, and in such a manner as to perfectly 
reconcile the mercy of God with His justice and to 
make both divine attributes shine forth with sin¬ 
gular clearness. Man is free: God compels no one 
to work out his salvation; each must himself desire 
it and put his hand to the plough. “ God made 
man from the beginning, and left him in the hand 
of his own counsel. He added His commandments 
and precepts. If thou wilt keep the command¬ 
ments, and perform acceptable fidelity forever, 
they shall preserve thee. He hath set water and 
fire before thee: stretch forth thy hand to which 
thou wilt. Before man is life and death, good and 
evil; that which he shall choose shall be given him. 
For the wisdom of God is great, and He is strong 
in power, seeing all men without ceasing” (Ecclus. 
xv. 14-19). But even if man had the desire to 
will, to choose, and to work, he could not in his 
own strength attain the end. He needs grace. 
And grace is free to all, every one may receive it; 
only he must strive for it; he must avail himself of 
all the means which are prescribed and which are 


33 


The Means of Attaining the End. 

at his disposal. The foremost and most necessary 
of these means is prayer. It is the key to all 
heavenly treasure, placed in the hands of man in 
such a way that the most learned as well as the 
most simple, the richest as well as the poorest, 
sinner as well as saint—in short, any one, without 
exception, may use it at any time and in any place 
and open for himself a way of access to grace. 
Just as a bird has been endowed with wings be¬ 
cause the air is its natural element, so man has 
been endowed with the power to pray, in order 
that he may at any moment ascend to God with 
lightning speed and move about freely in the ele¬ 
ment of grace. In the same way the holy sacra¬ 
ments are accessible to all and an open fountain 
running over as it were with the living water of 
divine grace, at which every one may quench his 
thirst according to the measure of his need and the 
varying circumstance of his life. All means of 
grace and salvation, however, are stored up in the 
Church, the house of the Lord, which only exists 
in order that man may find in her, pure and unadul¬ 
terated, all things necessary to salvation, and may 
distribute them to all the faithful according to 
need. This is the aim of her institutions, her 
laws and ordinances, of her numerous shepherds, 
constantly tending and feeding the flocks of God 
with the sacred mysteries, the divine word, and all 
the other spiritual means of grace. 

But whatever unceasingly affects the Church 
militant and her servants here on earth, also affects 
the Church triumphant in heaven. The com- 


34 


First Day; Second Meditation. 

munion of saints is a spiritual bond which unites 
both, and it is appointed in the goodness and wis¬ 
dom of God to become to ns another and further 
means of salvation. It is true that the blessed in 
heaven have already entered into their eternal joy 
and felicity; nevertheless they never cease to inter¬ 
cede for their oppressed brethren either retained in 
the place of jmrification or still tossed about amid 
the storms and conflicts of this present life. The 
holy angels, testifies St. Paul, are “ all ministering 
spirits, sent to minister for them who shall receive 
the inheritance of salvation” (Heb. i. 14), but espe¬ 
cially so the holy guardian angels who as faithful 
and watchful guides accompany each one of us 
throughout the whole journey of our life, and, 
finally, Mary, the Queen of angels and saints, is 
called a mother of grace and compassion because 
it is her office, her glory, and her constant business 
to obtain for us graces and to plead for mercy on 
our behalf. 

In thus ascending step by step in the supernat¬ 
ural order we come at last from the creature to the 
Creator, the Lord and Author of all, to the Three 
Divine Persons who have made man’s salvation the 
object of their adorable counsel and of their con¬ 
stant care. The only-begotten Son did not merely 
at one time become man on our behalf, He con¬ 
tinues to be the daily sacrifice of propitiation and 
the food of life on our altars, and by the power of 
His infinite merits our Intercessor and our Advocate 
in heaven. The eternal Father, who rules and 
preserves all things, has so arranged the life of 


35 


The Means of Attaining the End. 

man that each may, .according to his need, partici¬ 
pate in the merits of grace and redemption with¬ 
out thereby limiting in any wise the sphere of his 
temptation and trial. The Holy Spirit, finally, the 
love of the Father and of the Son, the promised 
Comforter unceasingly imparts to us these graces 
and clothes them as it were in the most diverse 
forms, so that they may operate upon each indi¬ 
vidual soul according to its receptivity and peculiar 
characteristics. He speaks at one time directly to 
our hearts, at another through the medium of some 
other tongue or mind; now he mysteriously touches 
our souls by some inward inspiration, moving us 
in a wonderful and powerful way; now it is by ex¬ 
ternal events by which He lays hold of us; now 
He speaks to us in words of sympathy and com¬ 
passion, now in words of anger and exhortation; 
at one time His voice is like the water of the sea, 
at another like the motion of the soft and gentle 
breeze—all only to the end that man may attain 
his salvation. “ She [wisdom] reachetli therefore 
from end to end and orderetli all things sweetly” 
(Wis. viii. 1). Mightily works wisdom, because 
all things must serve the purpose of Almighty 
God, and yet sweetly because she does not limit 
mail’s freedom and does not urge him on to his 
end by an irresistible necessity, but rather seeks to 
draw him by the bonds of the love and the attrac¬ 
tive beauty of grace. “ I will draw them with the 
cords of Adam, with the bonds of love” (Os. xi. 4). 


First Day; Second Meditation. 


3 () 


Third Point. 

Tlie attaining of our end then is the very great¬ 
est of all our concerns, and it is one moving both 
heaven and earth. It is in a very special sense 
our greatest and most important concern, since it 
affects ourselves alone, and no one but ourselves 
have to pay the penalty if it terminate in disaster. 
,God is glorified in His justice no less by the con¬ 
demnation of the damned than He is in His mercy 
by the felicity of the blessed. But in the case of 
man, whether his lot be one or the other, the differ¬ 
ence is as great as that between heaven and hell. 
The matter of our salvation is moreover for every 
one of us the most urgent of all matters, because 
the short and uncertain time of this present life 
onl} r is granted us in which to pursue it, and be¬ 
cause a mistake made cannot be rectified in eter¬ 
nity. He who has here neglected his salvation has 
neglected it forever. There are no other states of 
probation, as some who will not use this present 
life to work out their salvation have imagined and 
are still imagining. We do not pass from star to 
star in order to purify ourselves from the stains of 
some former existence and to become more and 
more perfect. “ If the tree fall to the south, or to 
the north, in what place soever it shall fall there 
shall it be” (Eccl. xi. 3). Whither man lias fallen 
at the time of his death into the region of divine 
compassion, or in that of divine justice, there he 
must remain, in the noonday of eternal joy or in 
the midnight of eternal despair/ Few only discern 


37 


The Means of Attaining the End. 

this truth and fewer still regulate tlieir life in ac¬ 
cordance with it. “ Martha, Martha, thou art care¬ 
ful and art troubled about many things. But one 
thing is necessary” (Luke x. 41). 

Of how many Christians may we not say in a 
similar way : Dear Christian, thou art careful about 
many things, thou concernest thyself with the world 
and the things of the world, thou strivest to attain 
honor and position and riches that thou mayest ren¬ 
der thy life pleasant and gratify thy plans and de¬ 
sires; thou busiest thyself about a thousand play¬ 
things and trifles, but respecting the one thing that 
is necessary, thy soul’s salvation, the most impor¬ 
tant of all, thou takest no thought? And to many 
a religious one might say in the same way: My 
brother, thou concernest thyself with many things 
of the world for which thou shouldst long since 
have ceased to have a thought; thou busiest thyself 
with the affairs of the house which do not concern 
thee and of which thou art not expected to give ac¬ 
count; thou art troubled about matters to which 
not holy obedience but self-love is prompting thee 
and which neither make thee better and more ac¬ 
ceptable before God nor hasten thy spiritual prog¬ 
ress; “thou art careful about many things, but 
one thing only is necessary”: that thou attain thy 
salvation, and iu order that thou be in no doubt on 
this point, that thou become perfect and walk per¬ 
fectly in thy sacred calling. For this end thou 
hast come here; for this end thou hast left the 
world, hast renounced its gifts, and hast been lifted 
beyond its cares. To this thy dress bears witness, 


38 First Day : Second Meditation. 

thy name testifies, this it is which is to manifest 
itself in all thy acts and thy doings. “ Therefore, 
my beloved brethren,” exhorts St. Paul, “be ye 
steadfast and immovable: always abounding in 
the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is 
not in vain in the Lord” (1 Cor. xv. 58). Inces¬ 
santly we are to be concerned with our salvation; 
not only at the time of the spiritual exercises, or 
for a few weeks afterward, but always and at all 
times, at every moment of our lives. Immovably 
are our eyes to be fixed upon the end, looking 
neither backward, nor to the right or the left; for 
“ no man putting his hand to the plough, and look¬ 
ing back, is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke ix. 
62). 

We should be constantly increasing in zeal for 
the work of the Lord: for our end is to be per¬ 
fect like our Father who is in heaven is perfect. 
It is a goal which we can never fully reach, to 
which we can only draw near, and really only draw 
near if we never stand still, but strive for it with¬ 
out ceasing and with ever-increasing zeal. “ Breth¬ 
ren,” says the same Apostle, “I do not count my¬ 
self to have apprehended. But one thing I do: 
forgetting the things that are behind, and stretch¬ 
ing forth myself to those that are before, I press 
toward the mark, for the prize of the supernal 
vocation of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. iii. 13,14). 


The Small Number who Attain their End. 39 


THIRD MEDITATION. 

THE SMALL NUMBER OF THOSE WHO ATTAIN TIIEIR 
END. 

“Many are called but few are chosen” (Matt. xxii. 14). 

First Point. 

A dreadful pronouncement! No wonder that it 
meets with so much opposition. Unbelievers who 
deny the punishment of hell, or at least its eternal 
duration, think it incredible that so large a pro¬ 
portion of mankind, indeed the larger proportion 
by far, will be condemned to it. Heretics have 
devised the doctrine of salvation by faith only, in 
order to escape this terrible truth, and they will 
not see that every page of Holy Scriptures enjoins a 
living faith productive of good works and rejects a 
dead faith. Even among Catholic teachers there 
are many who interpret the small number of the 
chosen as referring to all mankind, including 
heathens, Jews, and heretics. But it is the uni¬ 
versal teaching of the holy Fathers, that few of 
even rightly believing Christians will be saved. 
We know what St. John Chrysostom says on this 
point. In his Forty-sixth Homily, addressed to 
the people of Antioch, the largest city of the East, 
containing over a hundred thousand inhabitants, 
he says: “ What think you how many in this city 
will attain salvation ? It sounds hard what I am 
going to say, but I shall say it nevertheless. 
Among so many thousands there will scarcely be a 


40 


First Day; Third Meditation . 

hundred, and even respecting these hundred I am in 
doubt. For how great is the wickedness of the 
young, how great the idleness of the old! No one 
has any zeal; we are like a heap of dry straw, we 
are like the unruly waves of the sea.” In the 
same way we read in St. Gregory: “ Many attain 
unto the faith but few unto heaven” (Horn. 19, in 
Ev.). And St. Augustine: “Of good and genuine 
Christians, of which considered by themselves there 
are many, there are nevertheless but few when com¬ 
pared to false and wicked Christians: just as the 
many corns of wheat preserved in many barns are 
but few when compared with the chaff” (L. 3, con¬ 
tra Bresc. c. 66). But we have also passages of 
Holy Scripture which emphatically confirm the 
teaching of the holy Fathers. St. Peter asks: 
“ And if the just man shall scarcely be saved, where 
shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?” (1 Pet. 
iv. 18). In the Gospel of St. Matthew the Eternal 
Truth Himself declares: “ Enter ye in at the nar¬ 
row gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the 
way that leadetli to destruction, and many there 
are who go in thereat. How narrow is the gate 
and strait is the way that leadeth to life: and few 
there are that find it” (Matt. vii. 13, 14). And 
according to St. Luke, when one came to ask the 
Lord whether there be few that be saved, the 
Lord replied: “ Strive to enter by the narrow gate: 
for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and 
shall not be able” (Luke xiii. 24). And who are 
those who strive but orthodox Christians? They 
strive indeed, but they do not strive as they should. 


The Small Number who Attain their End. 41 

But it is not here a question of determining num¬ 
bers or proportions; it is sufficient to know that 
very many among orthodox Christians too will be 
eternally lost. And if among the thousand millions 
inhabiting this globe, there were only one who will 
be lost, let each of us tremble lest he should by 
any chance be that one. 

Second Point. 

What then is the reason why so many, although 
in the true faith, do not attain unto salvation? We 
learn it from those passages of Holy Scripture 
which also speak of the small number of the elect. 
St. Peter testifies that the just man shall scarcely 
be saved, and what could that mean except that he 
will be saved, yet only with great trouble, after 
much conflict, and suffering through much praying 
and repentance. And when Our Lord says: 
“ Strive to enter by the narrow gate” the same 
thing is meant, for striving signifies painful efforts, 
the use of every faculty, a straining of every nerve. 
Our Lord therefore says in another passage: “ The 
Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence and the vio¬ 
lent bear it away” (Matt. xi. 12). But this violence 
most Christians do not care to exercise; they take 
it easy, they flatter themselves that they will get to 
heaven in a more comfortable way, and they thus 
stray into that way of which it is written that it 
“ seemeth just to a man: but the ends thereof lead 
to death” (Prov. xiv. 12). They know no holy fear, 
love in them is very feeble, and thus neither the 
business of their salvation nor the desire to please 


42 First Day; Third Meditation. 

God are sufficient stimulus for them to determine 
on some earnest effort or generous sacrifice. There 
being no fear, they omit to be faithful in little 
things, they fail to avoid danger and to exercise 
themselves in prayer and in the other means of 
grace. And as love has no firm foundation with¬ 
out fear, they turn with all their hearts to the 
things of the earth, gratify their unruly appetites, 
and allow their passions to grow and increase in 
them until all their thinking and planning becomes 
earthly and is concentrated upon self and the love 
of self. “ All seek the things that are their own, 
not the things that are Jesus Christ’s” (Phil. ii. 
21). Terrible falls then become unavoidable, and as 
sin grows and increases, that last spark in their 
souls capable of once more burning up into love to 
God dies out amidst the dead ashes of earthly de¬ 
sires. And if death surprise them in this state they 
are lost, and even the holy sacraments cannot save 
them, seeing that for those who do not at least in 
the beginning love God for His own sake, there is 
no justifying grace. 

Oh! how many Christians receive on their 
deathbed the last sacraments with apparent devo¬ 
tion, and outwardly perform the duties which a 
dying Christian is expected to perform, and who 
lead all who surround them and even the priest him¬ 
self to suppose that they have died a good death, 
and who nevertheless perish because these acts of 
devotion which they had excited in themselves were 
merely due to the weakness of their nature. It 
was but the fear of death, the natural desire for 


The Small Number' who Attain their End. 43 


comfort and consolation in need, which excited 
these acts; in the heart there was no trace of super¬ 
natural repentance, of a deliberate and fruitful pur¬ 
pose, of a sincere love to God. Such are they of 
whom Our Lord says in the Gospel: “ Not every 
one that saitli to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into 
the Kingdom of Heaven; but he that doth the will 
of my Father who is in Heaven, he shall enter into 
the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matt. vii. 21). These 
are they of whom the Gospel says in another place: 
“ We have eaten and drunk in thy presence and 
thou hast taught in our streets,” we have called 
upon thy name and looked upon ourselves as thy 
disciples. But He will say to them: “Depart 
from me, all ye workers of iniquity” (Luke xiii. 26). 

Third. Point. 

No one therefore will obtain a crown who, as the 
Apostle testifies, has not fought manfully; and this 
law has its foundation in God’s love and compas¬ 
sion rather than in His wisdom and justice. He has 
created man free; freedom involves a free choice 
between good and evil; where there is a free exer¬ 
cise of faculties there is of necessity probation. If 
our first parents had stood this test, they would by 
tiie road of innocence have attained unto salvation 
and the beatific vision of God without difficulty. 
But, having forfeited original justice, both for 
themselves and for us, the way to heaven became 
rough and thorny. It is only by suffering as by 
some bitter medicine that man can be cleansed from 
the impurities contracted by his evil lusts. By 


44 First Day : Tlnrd Meditation. 

yielding to liis earthly desires and by tasting of the 
forbidden fruit he has estranged himself from God; 
it is by suffering, by self-denial, and conflict that 
he must return to Him again. But even if we were 
still in a state of innocence, we could scarcely com¬ 
plain of the hardness of the w r av to heaven, for God 
owes no man eternal felicity; it is the free gift of 
His grace and He can make what conditions He 
pleases. And if the way of penance were a thou¬ 
sand times more painful than it is, the suffering 
would still be out of proportion to the reward 
awaiting us, seeing that temporal things can never 
bear comparison with the things which are eternal. 
Should not then a sinner, deserving eternal death, 
praise God for His mercy in having opened to him 
by the merits of Jesus Christ a way by which his 
punishment is not only remitted after a brief con¬ 
flict, but by which he may obtain an everlasting 
crown, a crown so much more glorious by far, be¬ 
cause of his fall and his restoration to purity and to 
God? 

And from this universal law there is no exemp¬ 
tion for us who live in religious communities. We 
too shall not gain our crown unless we have striven 
manfully. It is true that with us the conflict is 
in one respect not so severe because we are removed 
from the allurements of the world; still it is much 
more severe in another, seeing that by our vows 
the prize has been removed to a much greater dis¬ 
tance from us. The advantage of the religious life 
does not consist in a religious having less of a con¬ 
flict, but in his possessing more powerful weapons 


The Small Number who Attain their End. 45 

and means of defence, more aid from above; in 
tliat lie is conquered but seldom and only in smaller 
matters, and that lie recovers even from tliese with 
much greater ease; in that he fights with greater 
certainty, gains a more splendid victory, and will 
win a more glorious crown. “Know you not,” 
says St. Paul, “ that they that run in the race all 
run indeed, but one receiveth the prize ? So run 
that you may obtain. And every one that striveth 
for the mastery refraineth himself from all things: 
and they indeed that they may receive a corruptible 
crown: but we an incorruptible one. I therefore 
so run, not as at an uncertainty : I so fight, not as 
one beating the air. But I chastise my body and 
bring it into subjection: lest perhaps when I have 
preached to others, I myself should become a cast¬ 
away” (1 Cor. ix. 24-27). 

If the great Apostle of the Gentiles, the chosen 
vessel of the Lord, trembled for his salvation, how 
much more should we tremble and take heed lest 
w r e run at an uncertainty and merely beat the air? 
A runner at an uncertainty, one who beats the air, 
is one who does all things well outwardly, but 
whose soul is without life: who wears a worldly 
heart under a religious dress; who does penance 
but without hurt to himself; who would be a fol¬ 
lower of Christ but is loth to take up His cross and 
to bear His poverty and His reproach; who in short 
would have the crown without the cross. 


Seconfc !Da£. 


FIRST MEDITATION. 

THE RELIGIOUS VOCATION. 

“Blessed is he whom thou hast chosen and taken to thee, 
he shall dwell in thy courts. We shall be tilled with the good 
things of thy house” (Ps. lxiv. 5, 6). 

First Foint. 

There is but one goal set before all men, and all 
alike must strive to reach it, although by different 
ways, in different positions, and with different 
gifts. “ One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, 
and Father of all, who is above all, and through 
all, and in us all. But to every one of us is given 
grace according to the measure of the giving of 
Christ” (Eplies. iv. 5-7). Outwardly considered, 
the priestly office is in authority and dignity the 
greatest in the kingdom of God, the priest being 
the anointed of the Lord and the dispenser of the 
divine mysteries, a mediator between God and His 
faithful people. Considered, however, from the 
standpoint of interior perfection, the state of the 
religious has the first place. “If thou wilt be 
perfect,” says Our Lord in the Gospel, “go sell 
what thou hast and give to the poor, and thou 
shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow 


The Religious Vocation. 47 

me’ (Matt. xix. 21). In obedience, therefore, to 
the Evangelical counsel lies the highest perfection, 
the truest following of Christ, and the greatest 
sacrifice which a man can offer to God. All men 
are called to a state of Christian perfectness, all. 
are to serve God in the position in which His 
providence placed them. All should and must oc¬ 
casionally make great and even very great sacri¬ 
fices when under certain circumstances the service 
of God demands it: still they retain their freedom 
to act in many things according to their own will 
and to choose their own way. But he who has 
taken religious vows offers to God not only all that 
he has, but also all that he is; he gives Him not 
only the fruit of the tree but the tree itself; he 
places himself upon the altar, and, for the love of 
God, surrenders that most precious of all gifts, his 
will, which really constitutes his entire being. He 
has thus nothing left to surrender, for in the sacri¬ 
fice of his free-will, of his outward activity, the 
free use of his faculties, every desire of his heart, 
yea, every breath of life are comprehended. 

“ Burnt-offering and sin-offering thou didst not re¬ 
quire: then said I: behold I come” (Ps. xxxix. 9). 

But if the religious state is the most perfect state 
of all, it is, so far as the spiritual life is concerned, 
also the happiest and safest one. Vows and rules 
are a burden, it is true; but a burden removing a 
thousand other burdens infinitely more dangerous 
and heavier to bear. They are what the wings are 
to a bird as it rises from the earth and, with ever- 
jncreasing swiftness, passes on its way. Or they 


48 Second Day; First Meditation. 

are like the armor with which a soldier covers his 
breast in order that he might protect it and shield 
it in time of battle. Or they are like the ballast 
with which a seaman loads his ship, that it may not 
become the plaything of wind and wave. They are 
a burden it is true, but a most wholesome burden, 
which both strengthens and protects its bearer. The 
vows, the rules, the common life are like powerful 
walls surrounding a town and defending it against 
the assaults of the enemy and frustrating them. But 
inside these walls there is a state of spiritual well¬ 
being, a very wealth of heavenly treasure, a super¬ 
abundance of the means of grace and salvation. 
The appointed exercises, the common prayers, the 
conferences and meditations, the frequent use of 
the holy sacraments, the ordered household, the 
mutual example, the constant watchfulness of 
superiors; all these are means of grace calculated 
to render the weakest strong, and, if he rightly use 
them, to impart to him power and skill for the 
conflicts passing over his soul. Oh, how many 
there are in the world who hunger for the word of 
God and who thirst for the living waters of grace, 
and yet who seldom or with difficulty succeed in 
stilling their hunger and in quenching their thirst! 
What hindrances have they not to overcome, what 
opposition to bear, what sacrifices have they not 
to make, in order to be able to perform their devo¬ 
tions and to satisfy the craving of their hearts, 
while we daily take our place at our well-supplied 
table and are fed with the most precious of spir¬ 
itual food. 


The Religious Vocation. 
Second Point. 


49 


But as regards earthly happiness too, the relig¬ 
ious life can be compared with no other state in the 
world. If contentment and peace are to be found 
anywhere in this troubled life, they are found with 
the religious, who, true to his vocation, lives his 
life in some well-ordered community. Our Saviour 
has promised to all those who shall leave parents 
and sisters and houses and fields for His name’s 
sake, that it shall be returned to them a hundred¬ 
fold, and that they shall inherit eternal life. This 
promise is literally fulfilled in every one of those 
who forsake the world with its hopes and posses¬ 
sions to serve God in some religious order. He 
who makes this sacrifice, and continues steadfast, 
is not only freed from the world’s perils, but also 
from its cares and anxieties. He is freed from the 
care for his temporal needs, from the splendid 
misery of riches, from the disappointment of ambi¬ 
tion, from the slavish conventionalities of life, from 
family cares, and from countless vexations which, 
as the fruit of envy and of jealousy and wicked¬ 
ness, are found in all conditions of human life. 
He is delivered from all that disturbs and per¬ 
plexes man in this world, and that robs him of the 
peace of his soul. If he has thus parted from 
parents and sisters and relations in the world, he 
has now as many fathers and brothers as go to 
make up the members of his order. If he has for¬ 
saken his home, he has now as many homes as 
there are houses belonging to his community, and 


50 


Second Day; First Meditation. 

if lie has left behind him in the world ever so 
many possessions, he finds greater ones still in his 
order, seeing he has there all that he can need or 
desire. And this is more than the richest man 
possesses in this world, considering that the lat¬ 
ter’s needs and wishes are always in excess of what 
he possesses. 

And just as the religious of pure and single mo¬ 
tive has not only chosen the better part in the 
matter of his temporal and spiritual well-being, so 
there is also awaiting him a still better portion in 
heaven; for Our Lord makes ample recompense 
and never receives a gift from His creatures with¬ 
out restoring to them abundantly. Here he re¬ 
wards the sacrifice we offer Him with temporal 
peace, there He gives us peace which is eternal. 
Here He gives us His grace, there He imparts to 
us the fruits of His grace; and in pr» portion to the 
greatness of our sacrifice is our eternal reward. 
Our divine Saviour knows how few there are in 
this world who really strive to follow Him and to 
yield themselves wholly to His service: He there¬ 
fore separates for Himself a certain number of 
souls whom He appoints to walk nearest to Him, 
to follow close in His footsteps, and to become in 
all things conformable to Him. These souls, if 
they respond to His call, become His beloved, the 
chosen of His divine providence; they become as 
it were His familiar friends, His personal servants, 
yea, His brides, because they belong to Him and 
are nearest His heart. These are they to whom 
He opens the treasures of His heart, overflowing 


The Religious Vocation. 51 

with love, to whom He gives on earth the best He 
has to give; and for whom He reserves in heaven 
the highest places and the brightest crowns. 
“And we know that to them that love God, all 
things work together unto good, to such as accord¬ 
ing to His purpose are called to be saints. For 
whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be 
made conformable to the image of His Son: that 
He might be the first-born among many brethren” 
(Rom. viii. 28, 29). 

It is therefore the unanimous opinion of all 
teachers of religion, that a vocation to the life in 
an order in which zeal and spirit reign is not an 
ordinary but a very particular grace—indeed, the 
greatest of graces which can fall to man’s lot here 
on earth. In our days this grace is all the more 
precious because it is so rare. The number of 
flourishing religious institutions is not so great in 
our time as it once was. The prejudices on the 
other hand, the difficulties and hindrances opposed 
by the world are infinitely greater. A very special 
manifestation of Divine Providence was therefore 
called for in the case of each one of us in order to 
tear us from the corrupt influences of the world 
and to open for us the way into our order.. But 
what have we done to deserve this: that Our Lord 
should have chosen just us out of so many thou¬ 
sands and should have passed over so many others 
who were perhaps moved by a much more fervent 
desire? The grace of vocation is indeed at all times 
an undeserved grace, and God grants it to whomso¬ 
ever He will: still we can say this much, that those 


52 


Second Day ; First Meditation. 

become chiefly worthy of very particular guidance 
who have served God from their youth up and who 
have walked acceptably before Him. But what are 
those of us to say who are not conscious of any 
such merit, and who have to smite their breast in 
deep penitence when they think of their youth? 
“ liaising up the needy from the earth and lifting 
uj> the poor out of the dunghill, that he may place 
him with princes, with the princes of his people” 
(Ps. cxii. 7, 8). 

Third Point. 

May we then be led to thank God from the very 
depths of our hearts for the great, the rare, and the 
undeserved grace of our vocation. A high estimate 
of it is one of the most excellent means of preserv¬ 
ing it. But we can best show our gratitude for 
this grace by faithfully using it, and by seeking to 
become perfect by its aid. It is not enough for us 
simply to guard against committing the grossest 
sins and to live the ordinary Christian life. The 
vocation to the religious life is itself a call to per¬ 
fectness, and in it there are prepared for us all 
necessary means and graces. But he who is called 
of God to be perfect can scarcely, or at least only 
with difficulty, hope to be saved if he fail to obey 
the call, since the grace rejected by him will in the 
course of time depart from him. The slothful ser¬ 
vant in the Gospel was cast into outer darkness, 
because he had failed to employ the talent which 
had been entrusted to him. St. Teresa had ad¬ 
mittedly never committed a mortal sin in her life. 


53 


The Relicjions Vocation. 

and yet there was shown her a place in hell which 
would have been hers had she not obeyed the grace 
motioning her to holiness of life. Rightly, there¬ 
fore, says our holy Father Alphonsus in his cir¬ 
cular ejhstle: “ God has called us into the congre¬ 
gation in order that we should become holy and be 
saved by our holiness. If there be any one among 
us anxious to be saved yet without being holy, I 
doubt whether he will be saved.” And once more 
he says in the same letter: “Whosoever has no 
desire to become holy cannot remain among us. 
Jesus Christ Himself, who loves holiness above all 
things, will cast him forth.” 

But let no one deceive himself with the thought 
that the mere consideration of the nature of the 
religious vocation constitutes a sufficient stimulus 
to perfection, or that it is no grave sin for a relig¬ 
ious to merely fulfil the duties of his calling bind¬ 
ing him under pain of mortal sin, and to care little 
about the rest. This view can only be regarded 
as theoretically true, and in so far as we consider 
the obligations of a religious iru themselves. “ Prac¬ 
tically considered,” as St. Alphonsus says, “such 
a religious cannot for many other reasons be re¬ 
garded as free from mortal sin. But, however 
that may be, all teachers are agreed that he who 
entertains such thoughts is on the sure road to 
mortal sin, even though he may not be in that state 
at the present moment. He only is really striving 
after perfection who is firmly determined to observe 
his rule in the very smallest points, who is pre¬ 
pared to restrain himself in a manful way, to un- 


54 Second Day; Second Meditation . 

ceasingly contend against his unruly passions, to 
tear himself away from all earthly attachments, to 
be guilty of no wilful and deliberate imperfection, 
and to add to this determination the most constant 
and diligent use of all those means of grace which 
may be helpful in attaining this end. For he who 
would be perfect, but declines to use the means ap¬ 
pointed by God for this end, is most certainly 
tempting God, while he is deceiving himself. If 
he is not conscientious and earnest in prayer, in 
meditation and reading, in the daily searching of 
conscience and particular self-examination, in the 
frequent renewal of resolutions, of interior and ex¬ 
terior mortification, in all the other common and 
particular exercises, he show r s plainly that he is 
not really in earnest in the matter of his striving 
after perfection and holiness” (Theol. Mor.,L. iv. 
n. 12). 


SECOND MEDITATION. 

THE UNCERTAINTY OF SALVATION. 

“There are just men and wise men, and tlieir works are in 
the hand of God : and yet man knoweth not, whether he be 
worthy of love, or hatred ; but all things are kept uncertain 
for the time to come” (Eccles. ix. 1, 2). 

First Point. 

Everything concerning the future is uncertain, 
especially so our future lot in eternity. Shall I 
safely reach my goal or shall I miss it ? Shall I on 
the day of judgment stand at the right hand of the 
Divine Judge or on the left ? Shall I one day praise 


The Uncertainty of Salvation. 55 

His infinite mercj 7 amid tlie joys of heaven, or 
shall I glorify His justice amid the pains of hell ? 
No one can answer these great, these decisive and 
all-important questions with certainty. There are, 
it is true, certain marks of election, and the holy 
Fathers indicate several of them, such as: delight 
in the word of God and in spiritual things, the love 
of prayer, hatred of the world and its pleasures, 
devotion to the Most Blessed Virgin, and so forth. 
But all these marks convey no certainty, merely 
more or less probability, never excluding a measure 
of fear lest the opposite should be the case. For 
nobody can be sure whether these marks will con¬ 
tinue with him up to the time of his death and 
whether he will have the grace of final persever¬ 
ance. Many have begun well, have persevered for 
a considerable time, but have failed in the end and 
fallen away. Many have possessed all the marks 
ever mentioned by the holy Fathers, and yet have 
perished in the end. The holy Council of Trent 
declares: “ No one, so long as he is in this mortal 
life, ought so far to presume as regards the secret 
mystery of divine predestination as to determine 
for certain that he is assuredly in the number of 
the predestinate; as if it were true that he that is 
justified either cannot sin any more, or, if he do 
sin, that he ought to promise himself an assured 
repentance; for except by special revelation, it can¬ 
not be known whom God hath chosen unto Him¬ 
self” (Sess. vi. de justif., c. 12). 

The most reliable of all these marks is without 
question a vocation to the life in a well-regulated 


56 Second Day; Second Meditation. 

religions order. From no other mark can we con¬ 
clude with equal probability that God will have a 
soul, called already here on earth to His exclusive 
service, to be one of the number of His elect 
friends. Still this grace too is no certain mark; it 
may like every other be misused, trifled away, and 
be lost. Our Lord Himself had called Judas 
Iscariot to be an apostle; and this is perhaps a 
greater grace still than that of the religious voca¬ 
tion. In the opinion of the Fathers he, like the 
other apostles, healed the sick, cast out devils, and 
worked wonders, and yet he was not among the 
number of the elect. Brother Justinius of the 
Franciscan Order attained a high degree of con¬ 
templative prayer and perfection, and yet ended his 
life in prison as an apostate and murderer. Church 
history tells us of two regular priests who with 
several others travelled to Japan in order to 
strengthen their faith during the time of the per¬ 
secution of the Christians. Manj r won a martyr’s 
crown, but these two were not among them, for in 
the hour of trial they failed to stand firm. Already 
when in prison with the other confessors they 
sinned against obedience by stubbornly adhering 
to their own opinions, and although but a matter of 
small importance, some of their brethren who from 
experience knew something of the working of the 
divine counsel already then entertained fears lest 
they should not be found steadfast. The after¬ 
events justified their fears, for when they had been 
condemned to be slowly burnt to death and had 
already been tied to the stake, they grew impatient 


57 


The Tin certainty of Salvation. 

as the pain increased, and, giving themselves up to 
despair and tearing their fetters, ran to their judges 
and begged for mercy, loudly calling upon the 
false gods. The faithless judges took no heed of 
their apostasy and failed to keep their word, but 
caused them to be cast into the flames, where, amid 
cries of despair and vain regrets and imprecations 
they miserably ended their mortal life. These and 
so many others of whose life and death no records 
have come down to us once bore upon them the 
blessed marks of divine election; but they lacked 
the seal and the crown—final perseverance. Let 
no one, therefore, be too sure because of the grace 
of vocation or any other mark of which he believes 
himself to be possessed; for he cannot tell whether 
he will persevere to the end in our order and 
whether he will finish his life as a loyal son of our 
holy Lather Alphonsus. 

Second Point . 

It is and remains uncertain then which of the 
two eternities will be ours, and any attempt to 
solve this mystery must end in failure. But if in 
one respect this uncertainty seems painful and ter¬ 
rible to us, we must recognize it to be most salutary 
and necessary for us, when we consider it in its 
consequences and effects. Man is naturally dis¬ 
posed to relax his zeal and his effort as soon as he 
is convinced that a danger is past and that some 
desired good can no longer escape him. If a fire 
break out in a house which the owner knows to be 
insured, he will probably make some attempt to 


58 Second Day; Second Meditation. 

extinguish it, because a certain loss is almost always 
involved. But he will not make that supreme 
effort which he would make whose house is not in¬ 
sured and who is in danger of losing all he pos¬ 
sesses. If the elect knew beforehand that their 
names are written in the book of life, the larger 
number of them would not be able to withstand the 
assaults of carnal lust, and they would be careless 
in applying the necessary means of grace: they 
would indulge their passions and in the end be¬ 
come so alienated from God that He would either 
have to alter His decree of election, or so destroy 
their freedom of will that by an irresistible neces¬ 
sity they became constrained to follow after good. 
The first is impossible; the second would be con¬ 
trary to the moral order instituted by God Him¬ 
self. Those too whom love holds back from greater 
moral transgressions would abate their zeal and 
only do that which the law demands of them. We 
would thus lose many a great victory over self, 
many a heroic self-sacrifice, many an earnest effort 
to attain unto perfection; for without the aid of 
fear love is not a sufficiently strong motive, espe¬ 
cially in times of spiritual dryness and slotli and 
in the hour of some great temptation. 

But uncertainty as to our salvation makes us not 
only zealous, but it makes us also humble , and it de¬ 
taches us from the things of this earthly life. For 
how can he exalt himself who cannot tell whether 
the shame and dishonor of eternal damnation may 
not be awaiting him ? And how can he give him¬ 
self up to the calm enjoyment of the things of this 


The Uncertainty of Salvation. 59 

rife, who knows that the fire of hell is burning be¬ 
neath him and who cannot tell whether it may not 
be burning for him ? This thought forms a terrible 
picture which comes between us and our worldly 
pleasure; it is the sound of the trumpet drowning 
every sound of joy; it is a bitter drop in every cup 
of sweet drink compelling man to seek and sigh 
after God and to find in heavenly treasure alone 
his true joy. Woe unto me! cried St. Teresa 
times without number, that I may any moment of 
my life lose God; and when she heard the hour 
strike she thanked God, “ that another hour of 
danger had passed away.” Such, too, was the 
thought of all the saints, and in this state of mind 
they worked out their salvation with holy fear 
and trembling. Pray for me, brethren! exclaimed 
that great penitent, Peter of Alcantara, when he 
was drawing his last breath; pray for me, for it is 
still possible for me to be damned! He remem¬ 
bered those words of the Holy Spirit: “A wise 
man will fear in everything and in the days of sins 
will beware of sloth” (Ecclus. xviii. 27). This 
helps us to explain why God so entirely took away 
this knowledge from some of His saints, to whom 
He had revealed their future blessedness, that not 
a trace of it remained in their memories. He knew 
how beneficial for them, too, would be the gift of 
holy fear. He did not wish to deprive them en¬ 
tirely of its wholesome fruits. Indeed, He per¬ 
mitted exceptional temptations to come upon them 
in order that they might be cleansed then from 
their most hidden faults. 


Second Day ; Second Meditation . 
Third Point. 


GO 


Let us seek, then, to respond to these wise and 
loving purposes of God, and since our walk through 
life lies between two precipices, let us avoid the one 
as carefully as the other. Let us on the one hand 
guard against unreasonable fear, which is apt to 
diminish our trust, which drives away love and 
paralyzes activity; and on the other against too 
great a sense of security calculated to foster indif¬ 
ference and to render us careless and inactive. Let 
us neither give ourselves up to an inactive unrest 
nor to a presumptuous repose, but let us work out 
our salvation with fear and trembling, never ceas¬ 
ing to hope, to trust, and to love. “ If thou con¬ 
tinue faithful and fervent in working,” says 
Thomas a Kempis, “ God will doubtless be faithful 
and abundant in rewarding” (Imit. i. 25). We 
must always entertain a good hope that we shall 
gain the palm of victory; at the same time we 
must never consider ourselves to be safe, since we 
shall thus expose ourselves to the danger of becom¬ 
ing indifferent and lifted up. When one who was 
very anxious about his salvation was once tossed 
between hope and fear, and lost in sadness was one 
day kneeling in prayer before a certain altar, he 
said and thought to himself: Oh, if I only knew 
that I shall persevere! God, speaking to him by 
an inner voice, replied: If thou knewest it what 
wouldst thou do? Do now what thou wouldst do 
then, and thou wilt know for certain. Upon this 
he felt comforted and strengthened, and placing 


61 


Tice Uncertainty of Salvation. 

liimself in God’s hands his anxious doubts passed 
away. He made no further attempt presump¬ 
tuously to ascertain what his future lot was to be; 
but he endeavored to discover the will of God and 
to please Him alone, thus beginning and ending 
every good work. 

Let us do the same thing, and we must and shall 
then be able to banish all anxious fear. Let us 
direct all our care not to the future so much as to 
the present, and ascertain and diligently fulfil the 
will of God here and now. Let us according to 
the exhortation of the Prince of the apostles (2 
Pet. i. 10) labor by good works to make our voca¬ 
tion and election sure, and we need have no doubt: 
we shall feel safe at least at this present time, see¬ 
ing that God forsakes no one who loyally and faith¬ 
fully co-operates with His grace. But if a religious 
asks what he must chiefly do in order to make his 
vocation and election sure, the answer is not far to 
seek. St. Thomas of Sales teaches him in that 
well-known passage, that the election to grace of 
every religious is made to depend upon a minute 
observance of each single rule. This is the first 
thing which God demands of a monk: that he 
should regulate his life by the rules of the order 
to which he has been called. On that road God 
prepares for him the greatest and the most excel¬ 
lent graces, and it is therefore impossible for him 
to perish so long as he continues on it. But he 
who departs from it, however well he may be run¬ 
ning, is nevertheless running outside the course, 
outside the channel of those particular graces, 


62 Second Day ; Second Meditation. 

blessings, and divine revelations which God has 
predetermined to give him in his sacred calling; 
and he should therefore be careful lest he should 
altogether be running in vain. But to faithful ob¬ 
servance of rule there should also be added con¬ 
stant prayer, if we desire to feel perfectly secure. 
We cannot be absolutely certain that God will give 
us the grace of final perseverance; but we have the 
most certain promise that God will hear us if with 
faith and perseverance we ask anything of Him 
that may be profitable for our salvation. Let us 
therefore day by day ask for the grace of persever¬ 
ance and we shall obtain it day by day. Obedience 
to rule will make our prayer effectual and accept¬ 
able to God, for we shall thus prove to Him our 
good-will, our honest endeavor, and how eager we 
are to co-operate with Him. Prayer again will 
give us the power to continue steadfast in our 
vocation and to fulfil its duties faithfully, and thus 
one will become an aid to the other. Hence the 
beautiful saying of our holy father: All-powerful 
is that religious who unites prayer to the innate 
observance of his rule. “ Hold fast that which 
thou hast, that no man take thy crown” (Apoc. 
iii. 11), says Our Lord in the Apocalyx>se to the 
angel of the Church of Philadelphia. Let us too 
hold fast what we already possess: the grace of 
vocation, the chief mark of our election—let us hold 
it fast by the scrupulous observance of our rules 
and by persevering prayer. Nothing can then 
keep us back from reaching our goal, and no one 
can rob us of our crown. 


Divine Grace. 


63 


THIRD MEDITATION. 

DIVINE GRACE. 

“ For she is au infinite treasure to men : which they that use 
become the friends of God” (Wisd. vii. 14). 

First Point. 

Sanctifying grace permanently immanent in jus¬ 
tified souls is tlie best and noblest of all the good 
gifts which the Divine Goodness can best bestow 
upon man here on earth. It makes us the friends 
and children and heirs of God. It is a garment of 
unspeakable beauty, imparting to us an irresistible 
charm in His sight. It is the bond of love which 
unites the Creator and His creatures in the closest 
possible way. It is the mark and testimony of 
His particular presence, the image and pledge of 
the joys of heaven. Its worth, therefore, is as 
immeasurable and infinite as God Himself, who by 
it gives Himself to us. Grace consists of all those 
inward aspirations by which good thoughts, pious 
resolutions, and good works are initiated in us, and 
by which we receive divine aid in our weakness. 
By grace reason is supernaturally illuminated to 
discern eternal truths, and the will is at the same 
time strengthened to follow it; to despise the en¬ 
ticements of worldly lust, and to conquer the op¬ 
position of our corrupt nature. 

All these effectual graces and even the very small¬ 
est among them possess a worth far transcending 


64 Second Day; Third Meditation. 

that of all created good in heaven and on earth. 
Quite inestimable indeed are they when we remem¬ 
ber the Giver. For they are gifts which come 
direct from the hands of God. It is the Holy 
Ghost Himself who speaks to us in them, who in¬ 
structs, exhorts, comforts, and strengthens us, and 
who condescends to become our Guide and Leader 
on the way to eternal bliss. No less inestimable is 
their worth when we remember the fruit they bear. 
For their fruits are the fruits of eternal life; they 
are the sunlight of the soul, causing every earthly 
and heavenly virtue to bud and grow and blossom 
in it. For the sinner they are the keys with which 
he can open again the gates of heaven, while for 
the just they are the means by which sanctifying 
grace is received and increased. And if there be 
added to it our co-operation, they will, like our own 
merits, be crownejl with unspeakable reward in 
heaven. Therefore it is written of the divine wis¬ 
dom imparted to us by grace: “The purchasing 
thereof is better than the merchandise of silver and 
her fruit than the cliiefest and purest gold. She is 
a tree of life to them that lay hold on her: and he 
that shall retain her is blessod” (Prov. iii. 14, 18). 
Yes, even among heavenly treasure nothing can 
compare with the value of efficacious grace. If we 
consider, for instance, the nature, sensible devotion, 
the sweetness and comfort of revelations, ecsta¬ 
sies, and those wonderful gifts called gratice gratis 
datce, all these diminish in value when compared 
with the smallest portion of efficacious grace. 
For those taken by themselves neither make the 


Divine Grace. 


65 


recipient of them better and holier, nor make him 
more acceptable to God, nor increase his reward in 
heaven. They may work the fruits of salvation in 
others, but they are of no use to him who serves as 
the instrument. This is confirmed by St. Paul in 
his letter to the Corinthians; for when he had 
spoken of the gift of working miracles, of healing 
the sick, of divers kinds of tongues, he says: “ But 
be zealous for the better gifts, and I show unto you 
yet a more excellent way” (1 Cor. xii. 31). But 
these more excellent gifts, of which the Apostle 
then speaks, are the gifts of charity and of that 
grace which make us well-pleasing and acceptable 
before God. 


Second Point. 

But that which imparts to the very smallest 
grace a peculiar and inestimable value is the 
wonderful relation in which one grace stands to 
another. “ Thou hast ordered, all things in meas¬ 
ure and number and weight,” says the Book of 
Wisdom (xi. 21), in speaking of the sins of the 
Egyptians, and it shows how God has punished 
them not according to His power, but according to 
the circumstances of their sins. 

The Book of Proverbs (xvi. 11) says in a similar 
way: “ Weight and balance are judgments of the 
Lord: and His works all the weights of the bag. ” 
There is then a certain number, a certain weight, 
and a certain measure of sins which must never, be 
exceeded, if the cup of the divine long-suffering is 


66 Second Day; Third Meditation. 

not to become full; and just as each sin presupposes 
a rejection of the grace of God, so there is a certain 
number, a certain weight, and a certain measure 
of graces with which man must co-operate^ if he is 
to be saved. If he reject some grace, decisive in. 
its operation, there may be given him a second, a 
third, a fourth, and, perhaps, several others more. 
But no one can tell how many graces are destined 
to be his, for no one can tell how the infinite mercy 
of God is merged in His infinite justice, and where 
one begins and the other ends. “For mercy and 
wrath are with Him. He is mighty to forgive and 
to pour out indignation. According as His mercy 
is, so His correction judgetli a man according to 
his works” (Ecclus. xvi. 12, 13). But one grace 
is bound to be the last; if man has missed it, the 
door of mercy closes for him and there come no 
further particular graces and illumination. He 
could perhaps still work out his salvation by ordi¬ 
nary graces, but he will scarcely be able to do it, 
and it is his own fault if he is lost. “ Then shall 
they call upon me and I will not hear: they shall 
rise in the morning and shall not find me” (Prov. 
i. 28). And let us bear well in mind that with re¬ 
gard to such a last and final grace it is not always 
a question of some great and important matter, nor 
is its rejection always connected with a mortal sin. 
Conversion to a Christian life, the vocation to the 
religious life, the second conversion to the life of 
perfection, and final perseverance often depend 
upon a man obeying his inward promptings in 
some small matter and in manfully gaining some 


Divine Grace. 


67 


victory over liimself. We know of great sinners 
who received the extraordinary grace of conversion 
on their deathbeds, because they had done some 
single good work during their lifetime. This one 
good work weighed so heavily in the scales of di¬ 
vine mercy that it outweighed the heavy loads of 
the many sins of a long life. Had they omitted 
this one good work, had they on that occasion too 
resisted the grace given, they would have been lost. 
We knew of some who recognized clearly that God 
had called them to the religious life, but who re¬ 
sisted the divine call and could not make up their 
minds to offer Him this sacrifice, and who after¬ 
ward fell into a life of vice and excess and had an 
unhappy end. These unhappy ones had not com¬ 
mitted a sin in not obeying their inward prompt¬ 
ings, there being no obligation under pain of sin, 
and yet disloyalty to the motions of grace became 
the immediate cause of their ruin. “ O the depth 
of the riches of the wisdom and of the knowledge 
of God! How incomprehensible are His judg¬ 
ments, and how unsearchable His ways ! For who 
hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath 
been His counsellor? Or who hath first given to 
Him, and recompense shall be made Him?” (Rom. 
xi. 33-35). 

Third Point. 

Let us then esteem no grace small which stimu¬ 
lates us to any sacrifice, to any victory over self, 
or to any other virtue. No grace stands alone, 
each is part of a long chain, whose beginning and 


68 Second Day; Third Meditation. 

end are known to God only. Every grace fully 
used carries witli it another grace, and is as it 
were a fruit which already contains the seed of an¬ 
other. However small and unimportant the matter 
for which a grace now given us may appear, we can¬ 
not tell, in what relation it may stand to other 
graces; we do not know r what link it may be in that 
long chain of grace w ith which our salvation is con¬ 
nected. It may possibly be some chief or final 
link; for the judgments of God are not as the judg¬ 
ments of men. But if the chain of grace be once 
weakened or perhaps broken, it is not so easy to 
connect it again. St. Paul therefore exhorts the He¬ 
brews : “ Looking diligently lest any man be want¬ 
ing to the grace of God: lest any root of bitterness 
springing up do hinder, and by it many be defiled. 
Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person as 
Esau, who for one mess sold his first birthright. 
For know ye that afterward when he desired to 
inherit the benediction he was rejected: for he 
found no place of repentance, although with tears 
he had sought it” (Heb. xii. 15-17). St. Aljdion- 
sus too used to say that one could not shed tears 
sufficient to obtain a second grace if one had neg¬ 
lected the first. 

Let us especially bear this truth in mind in 
times of temptation. Let us then think of the in¬ 
estimable preciousness of even the smallest grace, 
let us remember the infinite love and goodness of 
God, which has predestined and predetermined 
this present grace of self-victory for us from all 
eternity. Let us think of the exceeding great re- 


Divine Grace. 


69 


ward attached to the smallest self-conquest, and 
that so many other graces may depend upon this 
present one, that it is perhaps some decisive grace 
with which God has connected our perfection, our 
vocation, or even our eternal salvation. To yield 
obedience now to the directions of my superior, 
which is so contrary to my natural inclinations; to 
subject my own judgment now to that of an¬ 
other, when I am not convinced of its correct¬ 
ness ; to humble myself now before my superior or 
brother, whom I believe to have wounded my feel¬ 
ings; to take up that cross which seems to me so 
heavy, to destroy within myself this presumption 
or that vanity or fleshly lust:—may perhaps just 
be that act of loyalty which in His inscrutable wis¬ 
dom God has predetermined for me in order that 
I may receive from Him the reward of persever¬ 
ance, or at least grace to live the perfect life. But 
if I neglect this grace which is now at this present 
moment within my reach, I have perhaps thereb}' 
sold my birthright for some miserable thing that 
is not worth more than Esau’s mess of pottage. 
And let us not imagine that it is here only a ques¬ 
tion of rare and exceptional instances. Grace does 
not suddenly depart from any one who has not pre¬ 
viously neglected it and been unfaithful in little 
things. We read of so many instances illustrating 
this, and we have so many examples within our own 
circle. “ Then two shall be in the field, one shall 
be taken and one shall be left. Two women shall 
be grinding at the mill: one shall be taken, and 
one shall be left” (Matt. xxiv. 40, 41). Two shall 


70 


Second Day ; Third, Meditation;. 

enter tile same order and shall take their vows on 
the same day; they shall dwell under the same 
roof and partake of the same bodily and spiritual 
food, of the same means of salvation and perfec¬ 
tion :—and the one shall continue faithful unto the 
end and the other shall not; the one shall be taken 
and the other left. 


XTIMrti 2>ag. 


FIRST MEDITATION. 

THE MALICE OF MORTAL SIN. 

“For he had stretched out his hand against God, and had 
strengthened himself against the Almighty. He hath run 
against Him with his neck raised up, and is armed with a fat 
neck” (Job xv. 25, 26). 

First Point. 

Mortal sin is a monster, and the more closely 
we look at it and take it to pieces the more hideous 
it appears. Mortal sin is, in the first instance, dis¬ 
obedience against God, contempt of His command¬ 
ments, and defiance of His authority. The sinner 
who commits a mortal sin says in the words of the 
godless in the Book of Job (xxi. 14, 15): “Depart 
from us, we desire not the knowledge of Thy ways. 
Who is the Almighty that we should serve Him? 
And what doth it profit us if we pray to Him?” 
Mortal sin is also a turning from the Creator to the 
creature, whereby God is dishonored. The man 
who commits a mortal sin prefers created good to 
the highest uncreated good; he esteems the posses¬ 
sion of God as nought. To enjoy some earthly 
pleasure he regards neither heaven which has been 


72 Third Day ; First Meditation. 

promised liim, nor liell with which he is threatened. 
“Be astonished, O ye heavens at this, and ye gates 
thereof be very desolate, saitli the Lord. For my 
people have done two eyils. They have forsaken 
Me, the fountain of living water, and have digged 
to themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can 
hold no water” (Jer. ii. 12, 13). Again mortal sin 
is to despise and to set at nought the merits of 
Jesus Christ. A person committing mortal sin, 
according to the testimony of the Apostle, “ cruci¬ 
fies again to himself the Son of God” (Heb. vi. 6), 
and says to Him as it were: It is true that Thou 
hast for me suffered death and the shame of ihe 
cross; but Thou didst not first inquire of me 
whether I desired to be redeemed by Thy death. 
And I do not desire it now, I do not wish to par¬ 
ticipate in Thy passion, Thy blood and redemp¬ 
tion, and if the deeds I am now going to commit 
have crucified Thee I would rather see Thee nailed 
to the cross than to desist from my desires. Mor¬ 
tal sin is finally a dishonoring of God’s divine at¬ 
tributes : sinners hate God in His supreme perfec¬ 
tion, because He hates what they love. Were it 
in their power they would rob God of His omni¬ 
presence that He might not see their sin; of His 
omniscience that it might not come to His knowl¬ 
edge ; of His holiness that He might not abhor it; 
of His justice that He might not judge it; of His 
omnipotence that He might not punish it; indeed 
they would damn God because of His infinite 
hatred of sin, just as He threatens to damn them 
because of their sins. “ He hath become the cen- 


73 


The Malice "of Mortal Sin. 

surer of our thoughts, ” say the sensual revellers in 
the Book of Wisdom to the Son of God. “ He is 
grievous unto us even to behold; for His life is not 
like other men’s, and His ways are very different. 
. . . Let us examine Him by outrages and tor¬ 
tures. . . . Let us condemn Him to a most shame¬ 
ful death” (Wis. ii. 14-20). All this lies at the 
very root of mortal sin, and if the sinner does not 
express by word of mouth, he declares it by his 
deeds. However much some may assure us that 
mortal sin is but human weakness, and that they 
have no intention of offending God; or tell us with 
a bold and glib tongue that they love God even 
though they hate and dishonor Him by their 
deeds, their own hearts will convict them of their 
falseness, and their own thoughts and conscience 
accusing and excusing one another will bear testi¬ 
mony that “the works of the law are written in 
their hearts” (Rom. ii. 15). When our first par¬ 
ents committed their first sin in Paradise they 
too did not declare expressly that they purposed 
rebelling against God and despising His law, and 
yet their contempt and rebellion were shown by 
their action, since it could not have been for some 
mere weakness that such a severe judgment came 
upon them. There are two cities here on earth, 
says St. Augustine; one built by love to God, the 
other by love for self; the citizen of the first come 
to hate themselves, those of the second come to 
hate God. 


74 


Third Day; First Meditation. 


Second Point. 

Now just as sin and the very nature of God are 
diametrically opposed to and exclude each other, 
so God hates and detests sin, as much as He loves 
Himself and His own perfection. We shall never 
fully understand this abhorrence of sin, because it 
is infinite in its character; but it becomes clearer 
to us when we consider the vengeance manifested 
by the offended justice of God against sinners. 
Lucifer and his angels commit a single sin of pride 
and immediately they are cast from the highest 
heaven into the deepest abyss of hell. “ For (if) 
God spared not the angels that sinned, but deliv¬ 
ered them drawn down by infernal ropes to the 
lower hell, unto torments, to be reserved unto judg¬ 
ment” (2 Pet. ii. 4). Adam and Eve transgress the 
commandment of God, and immediately they are 
thrust out of Paradise and all the innumerable evils 
with which their children are thenceforth afflicted 
—pain, sickness, death, temporal and spiritual ills, 
the crimes and misdeeds atfiicting the race—be¬ 
come the consequence and punishment of that one 
sin. This single sin has grown into an immense 
tree of human misery and ruin, which has spread 
its branches throughout the whole earth. “ Where¬ 

fore as by one man sin entered into this world, and 
by sin death, and so death passed upon all men, in 
whom all have sinned” (Rom. v. 12). 

We need not, therefore, count up the other great 
judgments spoken of in the sacred writings: The 
flood, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrha, the 


75 


The Malice of Mortal Sin. 

dissolution of tlie Jewish kingdom; we need but 
cast one glance into hell and inquire of the thou¬ 
sands and ten thousands of souls who are there. If 
we ask them: Why do you suffer such torments? 
they will reply : As a punishment for our sins. If 
we ask again: How great are your torments? they 
will reply: Greater than any tongue can tell. If 
we ask finally : How long will these torments last, 
they will answer: These torments have no end, 
they last throughout all eternity; no time, how¬ 
ever long and far distant it may be, can appease 
the divine wrath. But how can this be? Is it not 
God who punishes, and is not God a God of love 
and consolation, a father of mercy and compas¬ 
sion? And those whom He punishes so severely 
and so unrelentingly, are they not His own crea¬ 
tures, the works of His hand, fashioned in His 
own likeness? And to all these questions faith an¬ 
swers : It is not only possible but it is certain, it is 
necessary, it cannot possibly be otherwise, because 
God in His infinite holiness infinitely abhors sin. 
His justice too is infinite. 

There would seem to be nothing that could make 
this truth any clearer, more apparent, and yet we 
have a still more striking proof. Let us cast one 
glance at the cross of Jesus Christ. We see Him 
bleeding, wounded, despised, the very outcast of 
the people, trodden underfoot like a worm, having 
neither form nor comeliness. Why is He suffering 
all this? “He was wounded for our iniquities,” 
answers the prophet, and “ He was bruised, for our 
sins” (Is. liii. 5). The only-begotten Son of # God 


7G Third Day; First Meditation. 

had to become man to be a satisfaction for our sins; 
a God-man had to shed His blood, that our sins 
might be washed away; the purest and holiest had 
to suffer a death of agony and shame, that sinful 
mankind might be reconciled to God. What a ha¬ 
tred of sin, what a depth of holiness and justice in 
Almighty God, that could demand such a sacrifice! 

Third Point. 

And now examining ourselves, let us ask our¬ 
selves whether we still possess the garment of in¬ 
nocence which we received in holy Baptism. If 
we do not possess it any more, if we have lost it by 
a single mortal sin, we have also stood among the 
betrayers and murderers of Jesus Christ; we have 
helped to mock Him, to scourge Him, and to nail 
Him to the cross, and we have trampled His most 
precious blood under foot. And if we have once 
seriously offended the Divine Justice, we have al¬ 
ready deserved hell, and would already be suffering 
the torments of the damned if Our Lord dealt with 
us only according to His justice. If we have once 
despised one of God’s great laws, we are rebels 
upon whom j udgment of death has been passed, and 
who have only through the long-suffering of God 
been spared to atone for their misdeeds by a life of 
penitence. But if this be so, where are the signs 
of our sorrow and repentance? Where are the 
marks of a contrite heart? Where is the constant 
sorrowful remembrance of our sins? Where are 
our tears, our works of penance? 

The saints had never stained their souls with 


77 


The Malice of Mortal Sin. 

one mortal sin, and yet they practised severe pen¬ 
ances throughout the whole course of their blame¬ 
less lives. They knew that for venial sins too pen¬ 
ance must be done; they knew that without it the 
lusts of our nature cannot be conquered; they 
knew that love aims at uniformity, and that their 
love had been crucified. But penance owes a 
much greater debt to justice in the case of those 
who have already fallen once, and they need it more 
as a means of grace; for mortal sin, though it may 
have been wiped out by means of the sacraments, 
always leaves a wickedness in the soul, a certain 
element of evil, a prej)onderance of the flesh which 
can only be kept down by constant mortification. 
The Holy Ghost therefore exhorts: “ Be not with¬ 
out fear about sin forgiven 1 ’ (Ecclus. v. 5). Let us 
therefore do penance, which is so salutary and 
necessary for us, and if we find it too difficult to 
apply the rod to ourselves as mercilessly as we 
ought, let us at least manfully practise the penance 
of self-denial, let us generously forego all earthly 
joys and consolation, let us detach ourselves from 
every pleasure which is not centred in God, let us 
deny ourselves any kind of ease that is not an abso¬ 
lute necessity, let us limit ourselves to the most 
necessary things and ever choosing for ourselves 
what is most simple and burdensome and lowly. 
Nothing is more contrary to the spirit of Jesus 
Christ than the spirit of self-indulgence; it incapaci¬ 
tates us from prayer and renders us incapable of 
spiritual exercises and of apostolic labors; it un¬ 
dermines chastity, destroys holy poverty; by its 


78 Third Day ; First Meditation. 

frequent exemptions it interferes with the common 
life; it opens the door to sloth, and just as it is 
the greatest enemy of the cross of Christ, so it is 
a faithful ally of the world and of the flesh—in 
short, wherever this unhappy spirit sets up its rule 
there is an end to the spiritual life. 

A veritable spiritual abortion, therefore, is the 
religious who has become wholly estranged to pen¬ 
ance and mortification; who finds it intolerable to 
bear a little cold or heat or fatigue, or to suffer 
some small deprivation; who in food and clothing 
and other necessities is more pampered than many 
a child of the world; who is always anxious to ren¬ 
der his life easy and to add more and more to his 
comforts; who only thinks of change and recreation 
and of some enjoyment, to which he thinks he is 
entitled because it has not the character of sin. 
When we took our vows, we were asked whether 
we were prepared to renounce the world and all its 
honors and pleasures, our friends and relations, and 
every earthly attachment, and to bear discomfort 
and hardship and poverty and contempt and the 
loss of all things to the very end of our lives, and 
we solemnly answered: Yes! Let us therefore at 
all times remember this promise made in the sight 
of Almighty God; let us remember hell which we 
have deserved, the temporal punishments for which 
we have still to do penance; let us think of the 
saints who persevered in penance until their last 
breath, and of the King of saints, our head, Jesus 
Christ. What shame to pamper the members of a 
head crowned with thorns! 


The Effects of Mortal Sin. 


79 


SECOND MEDITATION. 

THE EFFECTS OF MOllTAL SIN. 

“Your iniquities have divided between you and your God, 
and your sins have hid His face from you that He should not 
hear’" (Is. lix. 2). 

First Point. 

Humanly speaking, we term anything a misfor¬ 
tune which is hard and burdensome to us, and 
which causes us pain and sorrow or deprives us of 
temporal goods and enjoyments. Sickness, pov¬ 
erty, want, the contempt of man, and death are 
called misfortunes. But when we consider the 
matter in the light of faith, all these things are not 
really misfortunes at all, since they do not in them¬ 
selves separate us from God or hold us back from 
the attainment of the great end of our life. On the 
contrary, they are, if rightly used, a great help in 
attaining it. The only real misfortune is sin. 

The moment a man commits a mortal sin, there 
takes place in his inner life a change and transfor¬ 
mation which words cannot express and to which 
there is nothing analogous in nature. That mo¬ 
ment the grace of God leaves him, the Holy Spirit 
departs from His temple and Satan and his host 
enter in. From being a friend and child of God 
he now becomes the enemy of God, a rebel , a bond- 
servant and slave of the devil, and as he was for¬ 
merly a source of joy to God and to the holy angels, 
so he is now an abomination before Him and before 
the whole company of heaven, 


80 


Third Day; Second Meditation. 


Tlie saints who had a particular revelation on 
this subject tell us that no earthly tongue can de¬ 
scribe the beauty of a soul which is in a state of 
grace. But in the same way no one can accurately 
depict the ugliness of a soul which is not in a state 
of grace; everything hideous and horrible we can 
imagine would be inadequate. Satan in his most 
terrible form could alone give us a true conception 
of it, for that which makes him so terrible is his 
sin and separation from God. “Jerusalem hath 
grievously sinned, therefore is she become vaga¬ 
bond ; all that honored her have despised her, be¬ 
cause they have seen her shame. Her Nazarites 
were whiter than snow, purer than milk, more 
ruddy than the old ivory, fairer than the sapphire. 
Their face is now made blacker than coals, and 
thev are not known in the streets” (Lam. i. 8; iv. 
7, 8). 

The moment man commits a mortal sin he loses 
all he has hitherto merited. All his good works, 
his prayers, his sacrifices, his mortifications and 
works of penance are as nought; mortal sin de¬ 
stroys them just like the hail will sometimes in a 
few moments destroy a field ripe unto harvest, not 
leaving a trace of it behind. “ If the just man turn 
himself away from his justice and do iniquity, . . . 
shall he live? All his justices which he had done 
shall not be remembered” (Ezecli. xviii. 24). And 
it is not only that the sinner forfeits his former 
merits as long as he remains in this state, he also 
becomes incapable of gaining fresh ones. His 
good works bear no fruit before God until he re- 


81 


The Effects of Mortal Sin. 

turns to a state of grace, for God does not accept 
gifts from His enemies. “ Offer sacrifice no more 
in vain,” He says by tlie prophet; “incense is an 
abomination to Me. . . . And when you stretch 
forth your hands, I will turn away My eyes from 
you: and when you multiply prayer I will not 
hear, for your hands are full of blood” (Is. i. 13-15). 

Lastly—this is the most terrible thought of all— 
the moment man commits a mortal sin hell opens 
before him, he becomes the son of perdition, and it 
is only the thin thread of this frail, mortal life 
which prevents his being hurled into the abyss. 
And this thread may, and in innumerable instances 
does, tear suddenly and unexpectedly. “They 
take the timbrel and the harp, and rejoice at the 
sound of the organ. They spend their days in 
wealth, and in a moment they go down to hell” 
(Job xxi. 12, 13). 

Second Point. 

There are other equally sad effects which mortal 
sin works in the soul. The light of sanctifying 
grace is immediately extinguished in the soul of 
the sinner, his inward perception is darkened: the 
spirit is now in bondage to the flesh, and, pressed 
down by its weight, it has become incapable of 
realizing spiritual things. By sin the will becomes 
enfeebled in proportion as the evil desires and pas¬ 
sions increase in strength and boldness. For as a 
fire burns up brightly in proportion to the quantity 
of fuel supplied to it, so the unruly passions of 
man become fiercer and more insatiable in propor- 


82 Third Day ; Second Meditation. 

tion as they are indulged in. The conscience in¬ 
deed at first remains restless and seeks to confirm 
the will in good resolutions; but, unless an imme¬ 
diate and supreme effort is made by the latter, the 
execution of them becomes more difficult the more 
it is deferred, and the entire strength exhausts itself 
in vain desires which only stupefy the conscience 
and prevent it from accomplishing any good thing. 

This is the state of the sinner in the beginning. 
If he continues in this state any length of time, and 
by his falls and relapses increases the measure of 
his guilt, he gradually passes into a state which is 
still worse; for the power of the grace working 
thus becomes weaker and weaker and the power of 
evil increasingly greater. Satan is now no longer 
at the doors of the heart, he is in its very centre, 
and thence makes his wicked assault in order to 
gradually undermine the nobler powers of the soul, 
paralyze every better upward movement, and to lead 
the entire man with rapid steps to his destruction. 
The mysteries of the faith become more and more 
strange and difficult to him, for as the Apostle 
says: “The sensual man perceivetli not these 
things that are of the Spirit of God: for it is fool¬ 
ishness to him and he cannot understand, because 
it is spiritually examined” (1 Cor. ii. 14). The 
wickedness of the heart too plays its part and in¬ 
structs reason how to justify itself, and if not to 
entirely deny these terrible, reproving truths, at 
least to modify them and to tone them down and to 
explain them on natural grounds. And so a man 
falls at last into that fatal state of moral blindness 


83 


The Effects of Mortal Sin 

in which he can no longer distinguish truth from 
falsehood, and in which he mistakes wrong for 
right, darkness for light, evil for good, death for 
life; in which he despises heavenly things and re¬ 
gards earthly possessions as his highest happi¬ 
ness. The will is now so firmly tied to the iron 
yoke of passions and evil habits that it has a 
difficulty in acting freely, and in the end considers 
it quite impossible to regulate life by the precepts 
of the Gospel and by the more particular obliga¬ 
tions of his sacred calling. The conscience be¬ 
comes blunted by the constant assaults it has to 
endure, and although there was a time when it 
awoke at the faintest breath, a very storm could 
not now affect it, and reason will not be long in 
discovering the means of soothing it and of remov¬ 
ing its scruples. “The wicked man, when he is 
come into the depths of sins, contemneth: but 
ignominy and reproach follow him” (Prov. xviii. 3). 
Thus man’s destruction is completed. A thick 
rust, a threefold coat of mail which resists every 
motion of grace, encircles the heart. It has be¬ 
come insensible to God and heavenly things and to 
its own salvation, and it has so entangled itself in 
the bonds of its owrn wickedness that nothing less 
than a miracle of grace could set it free. “ A hard 
heart shall fare evil at the last, and he that loveth 
danger shall perish in it. . . . A wicked heart shall 
be laden with sorrows, and the sinner will add sin 
to sin” (Ecclus. iii. 27, 29). 


84 


Third Day; Second Meditation. 


Third Point. 

And what is, generally speaking, the demeanor 
of those who are in this unhappy condition? They 
are bright and cheerful; they laugh and joke and 
attend to their daily occupation as though no mis¬ 
fortune had happened to them. But what would 
be their terror if God opened their spiritual sight 
and enabled them to resize their true state! What 
terror would seize us tov if, like the saints, we had 
the gift of looking into our inmost souls and seeing 
them, as they really are before God. Many a per¬ 
son, cultivated, intellectual, and amiable, and even 
good-natured in disposition, many a so-called good 
man would seem to us a very monster, because his 
soul, in spite of its good natural qualities, is ruined 
by mortal sin. And how dreadful must be the 
sight of a priest or religious who is not in a state 
of grace! How apparent must be Satan’s mark in 
him who is marked as the servant of God! How 
must the brand of mortal sin disfigure him who 
bears on his forehead the ineffaceable mark of the 
priestly character, and whose most sacred functions 
stamp him as one who has robbed God! St. 
Teresa once saw two horrible demons sitting on 
either shoulder of an unworthy priest, while he 
was reading Mass, clasping his throat with their 
horns, and when the same priest communicated 
her, Our Lord, in the sacrament, said to her: 
“ See how great My love is toward thee; for thy 
sake I am even content to surrender Myself unto 
the hands of My greatest enemy.” Another saint, 


85 


The Effects of Mortal Sin. 

wlio w T as present while an unworthy priest was 
saying Mass, saw after the Consecration a fierce 
wolf holding a lamb in his claws and occupying 
the place of the priest, and at the Communion tear¬ 
ing the lamb to pieces and devouring it. 

Let us then pray to God that He may inspire us 
with a sincere horror of mortal sin, penetrating to 
the very centre of our souls, and to preserve it in 
us throughout the whole course of our lives so that 
we may tremble at the very name and shadow of 
mortal sin. There is no greater grace God can 
give us, and there is none that can guard us more 
safely in the waj r of our eternal salvation; for a 
great fear of mortal sin is our best protection 
against it, and the more we are afraid of this mon¬ 
ster the further shall we remove ourselves from it. 
Our Lord once appeared to St. Catharine of Genoa 
covered with blood and stripes and His flesh torn 
by innumerable wounds, and He led her to under¬ 
stand that sinners had inflicted these things on 
Him. This sight awakened in the saint such a 
feeling of pity for the maltreated Saviour and such 
a horror of sin that for a long time she could utter 
no other prayer than: “ My Jesus, anything, only 
no sin.” Let us also pray daily from the very 
depths of our hearts: “My Jesus, anything, only 
no mortal sin; any pain or cross or tribulation, any 
kind of trouble in this world—only no mortal sin.” 

We should frequently and in the light of faith 
meditate on the terrible nature of mortal sin so 
that the vivid .impression of this revealed truth 
may never become effaced or gradually give place 


86 Third Day ; Third Meditation . 

to a more natural view of it. This is more espe¬ 
cially necessary in the case of priests, who in the 
confessional not only constantly hear of sin, hut 
who must he pitiful and compassionate to the 
greatest sinner, and who are therefore in danger of 
becoming indifferent and of allowing their horror 
of sin to become deadened and blunted. Nor let 
us imagine that we have forever escaped the dan¬ 
ger of mortal sin by living in a religious house. 
Neither the walls of a monastery, nor the priestly 
dress, nor anything external can guard us from it 
except the fear of God, deeply rooted in the heart, 
and a conscientious faithfulness in the discharge 
of the duties of our calling. Lukewarmness in the 
case of a religious if long continued almost always 
terminates in mortal sin. How numerous are the 
examples of those who at first glowed with zeal and 
love of God, and who prayed and did penance like 
saints; but who, because they grew cold and did 
not persevere, fell deeper and deeper into utter for¬ 
getfulness of God. 

THIRD MEDITATION. 

VENIAL SIN. 

“He that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also 
in that which is greater : and he that is unjust in that which 
is little, is unjust also in that which is greater” (Luke xvi. 
10 ). 

First Point. 

At first sight venial sin does not appear such a 
very terrible thing. We are told that even the just 
shall fall seven times, and what is due to the weak- 


Vernal Sin. 


87 


ness of our nature would seem to be nothing very 
dreadful or dangerous. But this outward appear¬ 
ance of things is deceptive, and it vanishes away 
when we look at it more closely in the clear light 
of faith. If we, first of all, consider Him whom 
we offend, God in His infinite holiness, we shall 
see that venial sin too is something contrary to 
His nature and a thing which He infinitely loathes 
and abhors. If, therefore, a certain action of 
ours which, although a venial sin, caused ever so 
much good, converted ever so many souls, and con¬ 
tributed ever so much to the glory of God, such an 
action w T ould not on that account cease to be a sin 
and be abhorrent in His sight. And if a soul, 
passing out of this world, be adorned with ever so 
many virtues and merits, but be burdened with a 
single venial sin unrepented of, it will be shut out 
from the beatific vision and will not be received 
into heaven until it is purified from that sin. 

But when we consider God’s infinite love and 
goodness to us, His creatures, every venial sin we 
commit must appear as a slight and a w T ant of love 
toward Him. Love manifests itself in tender fore¬ 
thought in little things; it responds to the desires 
and wishes of the beloved; it is careful to avoid 
his displeasure and eager to gain his approval. If 
a servant is less faithful in doing the will of his 
master in things which are least than he is in those 
which are greater, we forgive him because he is 
a servant who works, because he receives wages, 
or x j © r haps because he dreads being punished. 
But we do not excuse the son of the house who 


88 Third Day; Third Meditation. 

only in important matters obeys Lis father, causing 
him no particular hurt or injury but ^lio takes no 
further trouble whatever respecting his wishes and 
commands. And we are not servants but children, 
children of that Father who is the Father of all 
that is in heaven and on earth, and who has Him¬ 
self taught and commanded us to call Him Father. 
We are the friends and brethren of His only begot¬ 
ten Son, who has sealed His friendship for us with 
His own blood. "Greater love than this,” He 
says, “ no man hath, that a man lay down his life 
for his friends. You are My friends, if you do the 
things that I command you. I will not now call 
you servants: for the servant knowetli not what his 
Lord doth. But I have called you friends: because 
all things whatsoever I have heard of My Father, I 
have made known to you” (John xv. 13-15). For 
this reason the saints have so penitently wept over 
every venial sin and have inflicted upon themselves 
such severe and long-continued penances. They 
knew full well that every venial sin was a stain 
upon their wedding garment and a disfiguring 
mark in the eyes of the Bridegroom of their 
souls. 

Second Point. 

We must therefore flee venial sin because it is 
displeasing to God. But we must be equally anx¬ 
ious to flee it in the interest of our own salvation. 
The effects which it produces in the soul are very 
similar to those produced by mortal sin, although 
there is, of course, a difference more than of de- 


Venial Sin. 


89 


gree. Venial sin, too, darkens tlie understanding, 
weakens the will, and blunts the moral sensibili¬ 
ties. In venial sin, too, grace is diminished as to 
its fervor, and if the soul continues in it and does 
not banish it by sincere and effectual repentance, 
it forfeits the special protection of God and His 
particular graces. For these are only intended for 
souls who love God with sincerity and who are 
faithful also in little things. “ For he that hath, to 
him shall be given, and he shall abound: but he 
that hath not, from him shall be taken away that 
also which he hath” (Matt. xiii. 12). 

It is from these grievous effects of venial sin that 
we learn why it is the bridge leading to mortal sin. 
Nobody falls into a state of mortal sin all at once, 
but repeated venial unfaithfulnesses so deprive the 
soul of the particular aid and illumination of the 
Holy Spirit that it can scarcely fail to succumb in 
the end when some great temptation comes upon it. 
When a building is neglected small cracks gradu¬ 
ally become large rents, a destructive damp begins 
to penetrate it, the beams sink, and the walls give 
way, and after a while the house falls, burying its 
inmates under its ruins. We have a striking illus¬ 
tration of this truth in the life of David, who be¬ 
came an adulterer and a murderer because he knew 
not how to restrain his carnal lust. Oh, how 
many souls even among those consecrated to God 
will perish in hell with whom the lust of the eye 
was the first temptation to some great sin, but who 
never mourned and wept over them as penitently 
as David did! “ Slothfulness casteth into a deep 


90 Third Day; Third, Meditation. 

sleep, and an idle soul shall suffer hunger. He 
that keepeth the commandment, keepeth his own 
soul: but he that neglectetli his own way, shall die” 
(Prov. xix. 15, 16). 

Another consideration which should justly make 
us afraid of committing venial sin is the difficulty 
of accurately distinguishing it in many instances 
from mortal sin. We have, it is true, certain rules 
and principles to guide us, and under certain cir¬ 
cumstances these maj r safely be relied upon; still 
there are cases in which it is extremely difficult to 
draw the line and where so many subtle considera¬ 
tions have to be weighed that God alone can see 
clearly and can judge accurately. But it is cer¬ 
tain that under such circumstances a religious is 
in far greater danger of committing mortal sin than 
any other person; partly because he knows better, 
partly because his vow lays upon him greater obli¬ 
gations, 'and partly because it is much more easy 
for him to cause offence. If, therefore, a religious 
would guard against venial sin, he must fear it as 
much as pious Christians living in the world fear 
mortal sin. “ Keep thy foot, ” says the Preacher, 
“ when thou goest into the house of God, and draw 
nigh to hear: for much better is obedience, than the 
victims of fools, who know not what evil they do” 
(Eccles. iv. 17). We are to keep our foot, because 
a fall in a holy place may easily be a deadly one. 
We are to attend diligently to the doctrines of per¬ 
fection which we hear daily in the house of God, 
because it is better, safer, and more meritorious 
to be obedient and faithful in little things than to 


Vernal Sin. 


91 


attempt some great tiling and to neglect and despise 
tlie former. 


Third Point. 

But it is clear that not all venial sins are equally 
dangerous. Lest this teaching then should seem 
unnecessarily severe, let us consider more fully 
which of them bring with them these pernicious 
consequences. “ A just man shall fall seven times, ” 
says Solomon, “ and shall rise again: but the wicked 
shall fall down into evil” (Prov. xxiv. 16). Those 
lapses, therefore, from which we rise again with¬ 
out delay bring no danger, because we are not yet 
attached to them by our wills and inclinations, and 
we detest them sincerely and heartily. Such lapses 
may occur frequently, and we may yet be honestly 
striving after perfection. Neither do they deprive 
the soul of the particular existence of divine grace, 
for the Lord knows the stuff of which we are made, 
and is a kind and indulgent Father to those whose 
fall is due to the weakness of their nature. The 
danger does not lie in those faults which are due 
to a passing weakness, but which originate in a 
fixed attitude of the mind and from which the will 
does not detach itself; not in some single fault or 
sin, but in its hidden roots, in those unruly incli¬ 
nations against which we do not care to contend 
earnestly, and with which we are apt to make an 
open or secret compromise. These unruly inclina¬ 
tions hinder the access of grace, they lose to us the 
fruits of the Blessed Sacrament in holy comrnun- 


92 


Third Day ; Third Meditation . 

ion, and bring upon us the displeasure of God, 
because through them those sins and faults and 
imperfections which they produce become our own 
voluntary acts. 

If, therefore, we allow such inclinations to con¬ 
tinue and to grow up in us, there is always some 
danger lest they should gradually pervert our 
hearts, destroy all its good qualities, and finally 
bring about a deadly disease of the soul. The 
Holy Spirit warns us: “ Go not after thy lusts, but 
turn away from thy own will. If thou give to thy 
soul her desires, she will make thee a joy to thy 
enemies” (Eeclus. xviii. 30, 31). 

But venial sins are most dangerous when he 
who nourishes them in his heart does not regard 
them as dangerous, nor will admit that they are 
peculiar to himself, and who, when his spiritual su¬ 
periors seek to convince him of it, seeks to persuade 
himself that they are mistaken, or that they exag¬ 
gerate the matter or are prejudiced against him. 
Those who think thus will find themselves spoken 
of in the Apocalypse (iii. 17, 18): “ Because thou 
sayest: I am rich, and made wealthy, and have 
need of nothing: and knowest not, that thou art 
wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and 
naked. I counsel thee to buy of me gold fire- 
tried, . . . that thou mayst be clothed in white 
garments, and that the shame of thy nakedness may 
not appear, and anoint thy eyes with eyesalve, that 
thou mayst see.” We should ask the Holy Spirit 
then to keep us from such self-deceptions, and to 
open the eyes of our souls that we may see clearly 


Venial Sin. 


93 


what we have most need of and wliat perverse pas¬ 
sion or inclination is most dangerous to us. 

Let us also ask our director’s advice in this mat¬ 
ter, and submit ourselves to his judgment, so that 
our self-love may not lead us astray and that the 
humility thus exercised may make us more worthy 
of a fuller illumination. But if we have discov¬ 
ered our spiritual foes, let us incessantly contend 
against them and never rest until we have wholly 
conquered and subdued them. And, even if this 
were to be a tedious work, if we had to fight 
against a single unruly passion for a number of 
years, as many of the saints have clone, we shall 
lose nothing in the end, for we are bound to win so 
long as we continue to fight in a generous spirit. 
God certainly requires the conflict, but* He does not 
always require complete victory. He sometimes 
reserves that for Himself, either to keep us humble 
or to stimulate us to increased activity, or that we 
may finally increase our merits. 

Meanwhile we must not omit to humble ourselves 
both before God and men, because of each single 
transgression; else they might do us great hurt. 
Never to fail at all is possible only for the angels; 
to commit a fault sometimes is human; to imme¬ 
diately correct it is Christian; to continue in the 
fault is devilish. He who sincerely humbles him¬ 
self immediately after he has committed a fault, 
says our holy father St. Alplionsus, not infre¬ 
quently gains more than he has lost by his fault, 
inasmuch as God is more pleased at his humility 
than He was displeased at his fault. 


jfourtb S>av?. 


FIRST MEDITATION. 

OF THE VANITY OF ALL EARTHLY THINGS. 

“For the fashion of this world passetli away” (1 Cor. vii. 
31). 

First Point. 

The world and all that passes in it verv much 
resembles a play. So long as one is in the theatre 
and among the spectators the scenes presented have 
all the appearance of reality. One fancies one 
sees all the beauty and splendor of the earth gath¬ 
ered together; kings and princes pass before one in 
stately attire, and everything sparkles with gold 
and silver and precious stones. The dazzling light 
renders the picture brilliant and effective. But 
when one goes upon the stage and steps behind the 
scenes the whole illusion vanishes at once. All this 
magnificence is found, upon closer inspection, to 
consist of evil-smelling lamps, of tinsel, and many- 
colored rags, and the kings and princes turn out to 
be poor people who are thus striving to earn their 
daily bread. Just so it is with the world’s joys and 
treasures. When looked at from a distance and in 
the ideal light of a sensually excited imagination, 
these things appear to be something, and those who 


( .)5 


Of the Vanity of All Earthly Things. 

possess them appear to be the happiest people 
under the sun. But upon closer inspection and 
in the light of dry reality, one becomes conscious 
that it is all a mere sham. These fortunate ones 
do not then excite our env}-, but, on the contrary, 
they awaken our pity. We find that their apparent 
enjo 3 'inents are unsubstantial and unreal. They 
are like the dream of some hungry person who 
fancies that he is satisfying his hunger on the 
choicest food, but who awakens to find himself as 
hungry and empty as he was before. 

The joys and treasures of this world are like 
Dead Sea fruit, fair and attractive to the sight, but 
all dust and rottenness within. They are like the 
book in the Apocalypse (x. 10), which in the mouth 
was sweet as honey, but when it had been devoured 
left pain and bitterness behind. They cannot sat¬ 
isfy the human heart, because that heart is capable 
of a greater happiness and was created for it. 
“Our heart is restless,” says St. Augustine, “until 
it rests in Thee.” So long as men possess no 
earthly goods, they torment themselves by lusting 
after them. But as soon as they have made them 
their own they experience a sense of disgust and 
repletion, and as each gratified desire contains 
within itself the seed of some other desire which in 
its turn becomes a fresh scourge, the whole life of 
an earthly minded man is passed between long¬ 
ing desires and wearisome repletion. But even if 
earthly goods could give us true satisfaction, they 
ought not to be too highly esteemed, because their 
enjoyment is transitory and short. However good 


96 


Fourth Day : First Meditation . 

and excellent a fruit may be in itself, it is rendered 
worthless if it becomes worm-eaten before it is ripe. 
Each single fruit contains within itself the worm 
of time gnawing away at its core. The worldling 
has scarcely taken his ease and sought to lay hold 
on pleasure in order that he may enjoy it to the 
full, when he finds that it has already melted away 
in his hands. “ Laughter shall be mingled with 
sorrow,” says Solomon, “and mourning taketh 
hold of the end of joy” (Prov. xiv. 13). And the 
son of Siracli says: “ Great labor is created for all 
men, and a heavy yoke is upon the children of 
Adam, from the day of their coming out of their 
mothers’ womb, until the day of their burial into 
the mother of all. Their thoughts and fears of the 
heart, their imagination of things to come and the 
day of their end: From him that sitteth on a 
glorious throne, unto him that is humbled in earth 
and ashes” (Ecclus. xl. 1-3). Such is the law which 
the Lord had already given in Paradise after the fall, 
and it was dictated, not only by His punishing jus¬ 
tice, but also by His pitying goodness, for it serves 
constantly to remind us that this earth is not our 
true home and resting-place, and that we are here 
only strangers and pilgrims; that no earthly good 
should therefore keep us back from the highest 
good, the real aim and end of our journeying here. 

Second Point. 

But let us step on to the stage now and look more 
closely at the idols to which the children of this 
world offer incense and to which they are content 


Of the Vanity of All Earthly Things. 


97 


to sacrifice tlieir immortal soul, the most precious 
tiling we possess. Physical pleasure and anything 
which gratifies the senses is the coarsest of all our 
enjoyments, and it is therefore most highly es¬ 
teemed by the great mass of the people. But is there 
any delight which is so utterly deceiving? What 
disquietude of mind does not attend it, what empti¬ 
ness and bitterness of heart! Those who have 
nobler aspirations, but who cannot tear themselves 
away from the things of the world, are sometimes 
driven wellnigh to despair; but persons of a lower 
nature become in the end so coarse and brutal and 
unresponsive to higher things that they make 
their belly their god, as the Apostle says (Phil, 
iii. 19), and glory in their own shame. “I said in 
my heart: I will go and abound with delights and 
enjoy good things. And I saw that this also was 
vanity” (Eccles. ii. 1). 

Next to the pleasure of sense riches are the most 
longed-for goal of all earthly minded people. But 
this is both an illusion and a folly, and especially if 
the pleasure be to hoard up money like a miser. The 
mere possession of money cannot possibly afford 
true enjoyment. And if the pleasure be to possess 
it, in order to be able to spend it as fancy directs, 
the delusion is equally great, seeing that one can 
only enjoy very few things at a time. And how very 
imperfect is this pleasure if one bears in mind the 
many anxious cares connected with the possession 
and keeping together of great riches. “A covetous 
man shall not be satisfied with money, and he that 
loveth riches shall reap no fruit from them, so this 


98 Fourth Day; First Meditation. 

also is vanity. Where there are great riches there 
are also many to eat them. And what doth it 
profit the owner but that he seetli the riches with 
his eyes” (Eccles. v. 9, 10). With others it is 
honor and reputation that tempt them more than 
anything else. But if one analyzes the ambitious 
man’s pleasure, one finds that nothing remains, 
nothing but a vapor, an empty sound—mere imag¬ 
ination. For how can true happiness consist in 
what other men think of us; and how different are 
their opinions, how quickly do they change them, 
and how sadly is the pleasure we derive from them 
spoiled by the envy and malice and intrigues of 
others. “ Sometimes one man ruleth over another 
to his own hurt. I saw the wicked buried. who 
also when they were yet living were in the holy 
place, and were praised in the city as men of just 
works: but this also is vanity” (Eccles. viii. 9, 10). 

Others again make science their idol. They 
never cease searching and studying; they sacrifice 
health and sleep and do not care if the one-sided 
employment of their minds shrivels up their hearts, 
and in the end they gain nothing that really satis¬ 
fies them. All human knowledge is only fragmen¬ 
tary, and the more fragments one gathers together 
the more one has to recognize that they form no 
connected whole and that one really knows nothing 
at all. “ I have spoken in my heart, saying: Be¬ 
hold I am become great, and have gone beyond all 
in wisdom, that were before me in Jerusalem: and 
my mind hath contemplated many things wisely, 
and I have learned. And I have given my heart 


Of the Vanity of All Earthly Things. 99 

to know prudence, and learning, and errors, and 
folly : and I have perceived that in these also there 
was labor and vexation of spirit” (Eccles. i. 16,17). 

Some, finally, imagine that they have found a 
paradise on earth in the so-called nobler enjoy¬ 
ments of life: in friendship and social intercourse 
and the home life. But is not every drop of honey 
contained in these joys mixed with bitter gall? 
How uncertain are all human relations; how often 
does one complain of inconstancy and unfaithful¬ 
ness ; how frequently do even good men vex one 
another with their mutual affections; in how many 
instances do disturbing misunderstandings enter 
in; how trying is the constant fear lest death 
should rob us of some one we love and to whom we 
cling with our whole hearts, and how painfully 
does not death finally separate all hearts! Unut¬ 
terably true remains the saying of the wise king: 
“ I have seen all things that are done under the sun, 
and behold all is vanity and vexation of si>irit” 
(Eccles. i. 14). 

Third Point. 

“Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity!” exclaims 
the Preacher. And St. Thomas a Kempis adds: 
“Except to love God and to serve Him alone.” 
Whosoever, therefore, is seeking rest and peace and 
joy and consolation here on earth is seeking in 
vain if he is searching for them among created 
things. He will only find them in God. God is 
the source and foundation of all joy and happiness. 
Anything, therefore, that can be called true joy 


100 


Fourth Day; First Meditation. 

must emanate from God and return to Him again. 
If it lias not its origin in tlrnt divine source, it 
may have the appearance of comfort, but it is not 
real comfort. It is no clear refreshing and living 
water from the spring, but dull and stagnant water 
from the pool which only increases our thirst. Our 
Saviour, therefore, said to the Samaritan woman: 
“Whosoever drinketli of this water shall thirst 
again: but he that shall drink of the water that I 
will give him, shall not thirst forever. But the 
water that I will give him shall become in him a 
fountain of water springing up into life everlast¬ 
ing” (John iv. 13, 14). 

Have we not experienced this ourselves? Has 
any earthly comfort ever quenched the thirst of our 
souls? But when Our Lord has sometimes deigned 
to draw near to us, when He has lovingly touched 
our hearts and filled them with the sweetness of 
His love, have we not at such moments experienced 
in our inmost being a satisfaction far deeper than 
any creature can impart to us? But these tender 
consolations are not permanent in character. They 
come and go according to the changing condition 
of our hearts. Those consolations only are per¬ 
fect which spring from union with God through 
active love. We therefore experience a still more 
perfect joy when we prove our love by actions and 
self-sacrifices, when, after a severe conflict, we have 
gained the victory over self, and when w r e realize 
that we have thus not only glorified God, but that 
there is joy in heaven and in the Sacred Heart of 
Jesus, and that we have gained for ourselves the 


Of the Vanity of AH Earthly Things. 101 

victor’s crown and an imperishable reward. But 
even this joy is not the most perfect of all. That 
is the most lasting and perfect joy which springs 
from pure and simple faith, rooted in the very 
depths of our souls, and which rises superior to all 
natural feelings and to all the troubles and suffer¬ 
ings of this present life. What is this indestructible 
joy of the spirit but that peace of God which the 
Lord promised to give to His own, that peace which 
has accompanied the saints throughout their lives, 
and which in suffering and conflict has filled them 
with courage and strength; that peace of which the 
Apostle speaks when he says to the Philippians: 
“ Rejoice in the Lord always: again, I say, rejoice. 
And the peace of God, which surpasseth all under¬ 
standing, keep your hearts and minds in Christ 
Jesus” (Phil. iv. 4, 7). But to attain this inde¬ 
structible peace and to have this constant joy, we 
must generously renounce all earthly joys. The 
Lord our God is a jealous God, who does not suffer 
any strange god, and it is foolishness to suppose 
that He will feed a soul with heavenly manna which 
is still seeking to satisfy itself at the fleshpots of 
Egypt; or that He will bestow the unction of the 
Holy Spirit upon a heart which is not free from 
every worldly attachment. And by earthly attach¬ 
ment is not merely meant some ordinary thing or 
pleasure, some person or things perhaps which W3 
ought to give up; but it is any and every inclination 
against which we do not seriously contend and 
which affords us pleasure and enjoyment apart 
from God. Those ; therefore, who think much of 


102 Fourth Fay; Second Meditation: 

their honor, and who openly or secretly seek after 
praise and distinction and who delight in them and 
cannot endure humiliations; those who will not 
surrender their wills and with a childlike mind be¬ 
come obedient to the views and wishes and the 
direction of their superiors; those who still seek 
self-gratification and who love bodily comfort, but 
who dislike the discomforts of the cross and the 
inconvenience of x^enance; those who are still at¬ 
tached to their favorite occupations, distractions, 
and amusements, and who cannot accommodate 
their nature to meditation, to silence and isolation: 
in short, all those who tolerate anything in their 
hearts that is not God or directed to God, will 
never attain to the true joy and rest of the spirit. 
They wfill ever remain as hirelings in the house of 
God, dragging on a crijipled and comfortless exist¬ 
ence, and never feel themselves safe and secure, for 
how dangerous these attachments and disordered 
inclinations are we have already considered in the 
preceding meditation. 


SECOND MEDITATION. 

OF TIME. 

“ All things have their season, and in their times all things 
pass under heaven” (Eccles. iii. 1). 

First Point. 

“Nothing is more common and better known 
than time,” says St. Augustine. “We i)erfectly 
understand one another when we sxieak of it; we 


103 


Of Time. 

perfectly understand others when they speak of it. 
What, then, is time? When I am not asked I know; 
when I am asked to explain it, I do not know.” 
Time would seem to be the opposite of eternity, for 
the words temporal and eternal are employed to 
indicate a contrast, and yet what we call time is only 
one little drop escaped from the sea of eternity, 
and having the appearance of time, because we can 
distinguish a beginning and an end. All that we 
can comprehend of time is the present; but what is 
the present? It is the moment of which I am just 
now conscious. But then it has passed away while 
I am speaking of it, and while I am trying to place 
it at the bar of my consciousness, it already be¬ 
longs to the past, which is mine as little as the 
future, to which I can only reach forth in thought 
and imagination, and in the cares and desires of 
my heart. Moment follows upon moment, and 
these gradually become days, weeks, months, 
years. And when ten, a hundred, a thousand 
years have passed away, they leave as little trace 
behind them as the last moment which has just 
gone. How very far distant must the present year 
have seemed to those living a hundred years ago. 
A succession of moments has gradually filled up 
this space of time; it has become the present year, 
and in a similar way will become the past to those 
coming a hundred years after our time. But just 
as fleeting as time is the frail memory of man. We 
live in the present, we plague and trouble our¬ 
selves about the things of the present. But imme¬ 
diately it has become the past it vanishes into the 


104 


Fourth Day; Second Meditation. 

background, out of our mental field of vision, and 
appears to our souls like some object enveloped in 
mist and scarcely to be distinguished by the eye. 
It seems to us like a dream which we can only with 
difficulty recall when we are awake. Who can ac¬ 
curately remember what occupied his interest and 
sympathy a year ago? Have not all the things 
then troubling our hearts passed away as though 
they had never been? However important the 
event which happens, however great the fortune 
or misfortune which overtake us, and however 
deeply it engraves itself at this present moment 
upon the soul and fills it with the keenest joy 
or the deepest sorrow: all these vivid impressions 
will become more and more dulled as time grad¬ 
ually effaces the writing from the tablets of our 
hearts. 

But if the memory of man be weak and limited, 
the memory of God is infinite: it embraces all, and 
with Him there is no past or present or future. In 
the oneness of His undivided eternity, He can see 
and penetrate all things with a single glance of His 
eye. All lies clear and unveiled before Him: the 
century and the single moments out of which the 
centuries were formed, and the way in which each 
man used the moments measured out for him for 
the time of his earthly life. Everything is written 
down in the book of life or of death. Innumerable 
generations have passed away since the creation of 
the world; but nothing is lost of their good or evil 
deeds, nothing is effaced from the memory of God, 
not even the smallest action, the most insignificant 


105 


Of Time. 

thought or word, the faintest motion passing like 
lightning over the human heart. All will be pre¬ 
served throughout eternity. 

Second Point. 

But it is just this relation of time to eternity 
which imparts to time such an inestimable value, 
and one of the holy Fathers does not hesitate to 
say that time is worth as much as heaven and as 
God Himself. Whether we are to possess God in 
eternity depends upon the way in which we use the 
time of this present life. We may at any moment 
lose or win God, and every moment has promises 
of holiness and of spiritual profit and has its pe¬ 
culiar and predestined grace. If we use it as we 
ought, it brings us an eternal gain; if we neglect it, 
eternal loss. We may, it is true, receive other 
graces and use them; we may wipe out our trans¬ 
gressions by penance; but we cannot recover time 
which we have lost, and that which is done God 
Himself cannot make undone. 

Time is, as it were, a grain of seed which God in 
His goodness has entrusted to us that it may be 
planted in good soil and may be cultivated and 
bring forth the fruits of eternal glory. The Holy 
Scriptures often employ this parable: “ Be patient, 
therefore, brethren,” says St. James (v. 7, 8), 
“until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the hus¬ 
bandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth : 
patiently bearing till he receive the early and the 
latter rain. Be you therefore also patient, and 
strengthen your hearts; for the coming of the Lord 


10f> Fourth Day; Second Meditation. 

is at hand.” The farmer labors to till his soil, 
although he cannot be certain whether he will reap 
the fruit of his labors, whether the hail or the flood 
or a failure of crops will not disappoint his hopes. 
How diligent should we be in the use of our time, 
knowing as we do with unerring certainty that the 
very smallest grain of our sowing will bear fruit a 
thousandfold if we continue to labor faithfully 
unto the end. The farmer, moreover, is not de¬ 
pendent upon the produce of a single year. One 
failure of crops does not mean his ruin. He can 
hope for better things in the coming year, and he 
has in any case other means and ways of provid¬ 
ing for his immediate wants. But we are entirely 
dependent upon the sowing of this present life. As 
we sow here so shall we reap there. Those who 
sow sparingly will also reap sparingly; and those 
who entirely fail to sow have failed forever in reap¬ 
ing blessing. Theirs will be a harvest of curse and 
corruption. “Be not deceived,” says St. Paul to 
the Galatians (vi. 7-9), “God is not mocked. For 
what things a man shall sow, those also shall he 
reap. For he that sowetli in his flesh, of the flesh 
also shall reap corruption. But he that sowetli in 
the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting. 
And in doing good let us not fail. For in due time 
we shall reap not failing.” 

What a sad sight it is, therefore, to see so many 
persons wasting the precious gift of time, in a 
senseless manner, and using for their destruction 
what has been given them for their eternal salva¬ 
tion. They find time sufficient to devote to the 


107 


Of Time . 

superfluous care of tlieir bodies, to the pleasures of 
the table, to rest and ease and personal comfort, 
to the vanity of dress and attire; nothing hinders 
them from indulging their pleasures and senseless 
dissipations; they do not hesitate to overload 
themselves with work and business, to involve 
themselves in the most difficult undertakings, if 
temporal goods are concerned; they shrink from no 
effort to be the eager servants of the world and of 
their own passions. But they have absolutely no 
time to think of their immortal souls, to attend to 
tlieir spiritual needs, to strive after treasure in 
heaven, and to serve God, their true and highest 
Master. Whatever time they are sometimes con¬ 
strained to devote to these things appears to them 
as time lost, and they hasten to be free of the dis¬ 
tasteful business. And in hell nothing will tor¬ 
ment these unhappy ones more than the thought 
of the misuse of their time, and for nothing will 
they sigh more than for a little time to atone for 
their sins and to make amends for the past. Yes, 
even the blessed in heaven, if they were still 
capable of desires or regrets or envies, would envy 
us our time and would grieve that they had not 
used it better so as to merit a still higher degree of 
glory. All the saints were penetrated by this 
thought. They were, therefore, so jealous of their 
time, always taking the greatest care that not the 
smallest grain of this precious seed should fall by 
the wayside. It was on this account that our holy 
father Alplionsus bound himself under a vow never 
to allow the smallest portion of time to be lost. 


108 Fourth Day: Second Meditation. 

Third Point. 

TVe pity the children of this world because they 
waste tlieir precious time so foolishly, but let us 
take heed lest a similar thing befall us. “ I say 
unto you," says Our Lord in the Gospel, ‘‘that 
every idle word that men shall speak, they shall 
render an account for it in the day of judgment” 
(Matt. xii. 36 . How much more shall we who 
have consecrated ourselves to Our Lord in a 
special way, who have vowed to devote to His ser¬ 
vice all our time and all our strength, and who have 
no temporal cares to draw us away from Him, have 
to answer for the least time we have lost. But all 
time must be regarded as lost which is not used 
according to the will of God, for it is conformity to 
the divine will which makes time, and that which 
is done in it, fruitful for eternity. Not only those, 
therefore, are wasting their time who pass it in idle 
talk, or useless dissipation, or childish trilling, or 
who sit or kneel indolently during the spiritual 
exercises and indulge in vain and idle imagin¬ 
ings: but those too who busy themselves inde¬ 
pendently of their rules and obedience and who 
employ their time as caprice and fancy direct. 
Rule and obedience are like the hands of a clock: 
they tell us what time it is according to the will of 
God, and what God demands of us at any hour, 
minute, and second. Those who are guided by it 
are certain to use their time well. Those who are 
not guided by it are laboring in vain, however good 
and praiseworthy their occupation be in itself. 


Of Time. 


100 


They do not. to use the language of St. Paul 
<1 Cor. iii. 12 , gather “gold, silver, or precious 
stones,” hut “wood, hay, and stubble,” for the fire 
of purgatory. “See therefore, brethren,” says the 
same Apostle, “ how you walk circumspectly: not 
as unwise, but as wise, redeeming the time, be¬ 
cause the days are evil. * Wherefore become not 
unwise, but understanding what is the will of God” 
(Ephes. v. 15-17 . 

But let us for our comfort amid the conflicts and 
sorrows of this life remember the transitory char¬ 
acter of time. However hard something may ap¬ 
pear at this present moment, the lapse of time will 
soon have swept it away. It is true it seems to us 
sometimes as though some present suffering was 
bound to continue to weigh heavily upon us, and 
indeed become more and more intolerable as time 
goes on. But this is for the most part only a delu¬ 
sion, which originates in the fact that at the time 
of trial things appear quite different to what they 
really are. The life of men is an incessant change; 
it is a coming and going of the most diverse condi¬ 
tions, an ebb and fiow of influences and impres¬ 
sions, of thoughts and feelings—a wave which has 
no sooner risen than it is already displaced by an¬ 
other. The greater part of our temptations pass 
away so quickly that whether we resisted them or 
not, whether we gratified our passion or overcame 
it through love to God, in a few days or weeks or 
months not a trace of them will be left behind in 
our memories. 

In either ease the pleasure of gratification as 


110 Fourth Day; Third Meditation. 

well as tlie pain of victory are past, only with this 
difference: that for the brief pain there is reserved 
an eternal reward, and for the short pleasure there 
will be severer penance here or hereafter. But even 
in greater and long-continued trials time and cus¬ 
tom gradually deaden the sting of suffering. And 
even if our trial continued throughout the whole of 
our life with undiminislied force; if our entire life 
were an unbroken chain of suffering, even then 
heaven would not have been purchased at too great 
a price. For the more abundant the sowing, the 
more abundant the sheaves of eternal joy. “ They 
that sow in tears shall reap in joy. Going they 
went and wept, casting their seeds. But coming 
they shall come with jovfulness, carrying their 
sheaves” (Ps. cxxv. 5-7). 

THIRD MEDITATION. 

OF DEATH. 

“ It is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the 
judgment” (Heb. ix. 27). 

First Point. 

This is an article of faith which few deny with 
their lips but which numbers of people deny by 
their lives, in thinking and acting and striving as 
though this earth were their home and they were to 
live on it forever. And in order not to be reminded 
of this loathsome article of faith, they not only flee 
from the sight of death but from everything that is 
connected with it. “ O death, how bitter is the 


Ill 


Of Death. 

remembrance of thee to a man that hath peace in 
his possessions!” But as we have no desire to enjoy 
the world and its gifts we will not seek to flee the 
sight of death, but, as a believer ought to do, look it 
sternly in the face. “ Remember that death is not 
slow, and that the covenant of hell hath been shown 
to thee, for the covenant of this world shall surely 
die” (Eeclus. xiv. 12). There will come a time for 
every man when he will draw his last breath, when 
the soul will bid farewell to its old comrade the 
body; when this machine, so wonderfully formed 
by the hand of God, will come to a standstill, and 
the restless activity of its marvellous mechanism 
will cease at last. The body will then become cold 
and heavy, the face haggard and pointed and of 
deadly pallor; the mouth will remain open, the lips 
blue; the features appear changed and aged, and 
they will become distorted if the death struggle 
is hard and prolonged. The corpse is then 
washed and dressed and placed upon the bier. 
After forty-eight hours there are already traces of 
decomposition; there emanates from the body an 
unbearable odor and small black and greenish spots 
begin to make their appearance. The dead man 
becomes even to his nearest friends an object of 
horror and loathing. He is hurried to his grave so 
that his continued presence may not bring death to 
the living. In the course of a few days the process 
of decomposition has already commenced. The 
worms are making the rotting flesh their ghastly 
food. In a few weeks more the corpse looks so 
horrible that no one could bear to look at it or 


112 Fourth Day; Third Meditation. 

to remain near it. Tlie inner organs liave passed 
into a state of fermentation; tlie worms have 
pierced tlie skin and are gnawing away at wliat 
corruption lias still left solid. Tlie mangled face 
scarcely shows a trace of human features, and all 
this corrupting horror is enveloped in pestilential 
vapor. After ten or twelve years the body (if put 
in the earth) together with the worms which fed 
upon it has entirely rotted away and only the skele¬ 
ton remains. After twenty or twenty-five years 
this too is gone, and there remains only the skull. 
After fifty or sixty years nothing is left but a hand¬ 
ful of dust. “ In the sweat of thy face shalt thou 
eat bread, till thou return to the earth, out of which 
thou wast taken: for dust thou art, and into dust 
shalt thou return” (Gen. iii. 19). 

Second Point. 

Thus ends all earthly greatness and glory. 
Death abolishes all differences and makes all men 
equal. High or low, rich or poor, fair or ill- 
favored, learned or unlearned: in death all be¬ 
come equal, and the corrupting corpse of a king is 
as hideous to behold as that of a beggar. Let a 
' man possess ever so much wealth and riches, ever 
so many gifts of fortune, of honor, or of nature 
which the world envies him, he must in the end 
leave.it all. He has to part even with that which is 
part of himself and which he really possesses, his 
body, and the immortal soul only passes to the 
judgment-seat of God to give account of its deeds 


113 


Of Death. 

both good and evil. Most people plague them¬ 
selves all their lives in order to gain something 
which they regard as the most longed-for goal of 
all their desires. They trouble and think about it 
night and day; they make their plans as though 
their life was never to come to an end. Meanwhile 
death creeps upon them unawares, mercilessly 
tears the entire web of their ingenious schemes, 
and they are carried on or, as the case may be, 
not carried on, by those who come after them. 
Often they destroy in one single moment what their 
predecessors had laboriously built up during many 
years—and the world goes on as before. “ 0 Lord, 
make me to know my end,” exclaims David, “and 
what is the number of my days, that I may know 
what is wanting to me. Behold thou hast made 
my days measurable: and my substance is as noth¬ 
ing before Thee. And indeed all things are van¬ 
ity, every man living. Surely man passetli as an 
image: yea, and he is disquieted in vain. He 
storeth up and he knoweth not for whom he shall 
gather these things. And now what is my hope? 
is it not the Lord?” (Ps. xxxviii. 5-8). 

The Book of the Machabees tells us of the great 
deeds of King Alexander of Macedonia, of the wars 
he waged, of the kings he conquered, and of the 
many countries he subdued; how when his heart 
was lifted up with pride, he gathered a great and 
mighty army together to accomplish still greater 
things. But toward the end the book mentions 
quite briefly that Alexander laid himself down on 
his bed and died, and that his enormous empire 


114 


Fourth Day; Third Meditation. 


was divided among Ids generals. Alexander thus 
ended in the midst of his great deeds and projects, 
and thus also ends those who have played a less 
prominent part in the great drama of this world. 
The fame of Alexander the Great, it is true, has 
gone out into all the world, while most people are 
only known within the small sphere of a particular 
country or town, or perhaps only a village, and 
are even there forgotten before long and their 
names effaced from the memory of man, but this 
advantage too is only an apparent one. How many 
so-called great men—generals, statesmen, philoso¬ 
phers, inventors, artists, poets, geniuses of all 
kinds and degrees, whom the world names with 
admiration, to whom it erects statues and monu¬ 
ments and whom it untiringly idolizes, have long 
been buried in hell; and will it alleviate their un¬ 
speakable pain if their names are sometimes men¬ 
tioned here on earth? “We wearied ourselves in 
the way of iniquity and destruction,” say the 
damned in the Book of Wisdom (v. 7-10), “and 
have walked through hard ways, but the way of 
the Lord we have not known. What hath pride 
profited us? or what advantage hath the boasting 
of riches brought us? All those things are passed 
away like a shadow and like a post that runneth 
on. And as a ship that passetli through the waves : 
whereof when it is gone by, the trace cannot be 
found nor the path of its keel in the waters.” 


Of Death. 


115 


Third Paint. 

But as certain as death, as uncertain is the hour 
of our death. A time must come for every one of 
us when we must depart out of this world; a cer¬ 
tain year, month, and day, and hour, and minute. 
But no one can tell when this year, this month, 
this day, this minute will be, unless it has been 
specially revealed to him. But Holy Scripture 
tells us this much : “ The day will come like a thief 
in the night.” Nothing in the world can offer any 
guaranty to us that death is still far off. He may 
yet delay many years, but he may also come at any 
moment. There is an equal uncertainty respecting 
the mode of our death and the circumstances which 
will accompany it. I cannot tell whether I shall die 
a natural or a violent death, an easy or a painful one; 
whether the powers of life will diminish gradually 
during the pangs of some wearisome sickness, or 
whether the thread will be severed quickly; whether 
I shall die after due preparation or without it; in 
the bosom of the congregation or outside the house; 
whether provided with the means of grace amidst 
the prayers and exhortations of the brethren; or as 
once in France and now recently in Spain, butch¬ 
ered amidst the curses and imprecations of a raving 
crowd. Finally—and what is most important of 
all—I know not whether I shall die in a state of 
grace or whether I shall not; when zealous or luke¬ 
warm; whether immediately after the spiritual ex¬ 
ercises or some little time afterwards; whether 
in a state in which good resolutions continue or 


116 Fourth Day; Third Meditation. 

one in wliicli they have vanished away and made 
room for the old slovenliness and indifference. 
“Watch ye therefore,” exclaims the Eternal Truth, 
“because you know not the day nor the hour” 
(Matt. xxv. 13). “Be you then also ready: for 
at what hour you think not the Son of man will 
come” (Luke xii. 40). It is a very common de¬ 
lusion with most persons to imagine death as 
something very far off. Even to the very aged it 
generally comes too soon and unexpectedly, because 
they constantly cherish the hope that Somehow 
the thread of their life will be spun out a few years 
longer. But among us there ought to be no such 
delusion; on the contrary, we ought to contemplate 
death as something quite near to us. As a matter 
of fact, it is perhaps to some among us nearer than 
they think. One of our brethren who was still in 
the flower of youth marked this very statement 
down as a fruit of this meditation, and it was ful¬ 
filled in his case. He never lived to pass through 
the spiritual exercises of the following year, but 
died several days before, a sudden and unexpected 
death without being able to receive the last sacra¬ 
ments. It was well for him that he was prepared 
and that he had performed the last exercises with 
great zeal. But what became true in his case con¬ 
trary to all expectation may also become true in the 
case of each one of us. 

Let us, therefore, perform all our duties, but es¬ 
pecially make these holy exercises as though they 
were our last. If it were at this moment revealed 
to any one among us that he must die after six 


117 


Of Death. 

months’ time, wliat holy resolutions would he not 
form, how zealously would he not carry them out, 
what a sanctified life would he not lead during that 
time. He would never cease to pray and to sigh, 
to watch and to fast, to mortify and to humble 
himself. The severest penances would seem light 
to him, because he would constantly say to himself: 
This hard life will only last six months, then I 
shall go to receive an eternal and imperishable re¬ 
ward for my labors. Now this is not absolutely 
certain, but it may possibly happen in the case of 
each one of us; indeed it is very probable that in 
the course of the coming year the Lord will at least 
call away one out of this assembly, and any one 
of us may be that one. But in a matter of such 
extreme importance possibility and probability 
should awaken the same zeal in us, as certainty it¬ 
self. And even if we had the certainty to the con¬ 
trary, if we knew by revelation that God has re¬ 
served for us a long life, that we have yet to live 
ten or twenty or fifty years, we should be no less 
zealous on that account; for fifty years are a mere 
dot of time compared with the eternity awaiting us, 
and they are as fleeting in their character as the 
whole time of our life. Could w T e but make up our 
minds to prepare seriously for our death as if it 
were to come within six months, our gain would be 
great, for the perfect walk with God and in God 
would seem so sweet and delightful to us that we 
would never desist from it even though we should 
reach Mathusela’s age. 


jftttb S>a$. 


FIRST MEDITATION. 

OF THE DEATH-STRUGGLE. 

“The affliction of an hour maketlione forget great delights, 
and in the end of a man is the disclosing of his works” 
(Ecclus. xi. 29). 

First Point. 

The loss of this earthly life is not the only thing 
that makes death so terrible. Death is also a pun¬ 
ishment inflicted by the Lord God upon the whole 
of the human race after the fall. There is, there¬ 
fore, a bitterness in the cup of death of which as a 
rule all have to taste, however little they may love 
this present life. This bitterness consists in the 
terrors accompanying the hour of death, in the 
pain and agony which generally precede the sepa¬ 
ration of the soul from the body. These may vary : 
they may be hard or light, short or prolonged, but 
hardly any one remains entirely free from them. 
For those, too, who on the whole die calmly and 
quietly, and those who are snatched away suddenly 
have for the most part to pay a portion of the com¬ 
mon debt, and experience at least a few moments 
before death a shrinking of their nature at their 
approaching dissolution, a terror of the soul in its 


Of the Death-Struggle. Ill) 

passage to the unknown world of spirits. A severe 
physical death-struggle takes place when the bod¬ 
ily strength remains and the iron hand of death 
forcibly destroys the resisting powers of life. The 
dying man then writhes in his agony. His breath¬ 
ing becomes labored and oppressed, the eyes be¬ 
come fixed, a cold sweat covers the brow, the whole 
body is violently convulsed. Blessed Henry Suso 
compares such a man to a little bird which has 
fallen into the claws of some fierce bird of prey and 
which is being torn to pieces by it, however hard it 
may struggle and resist. 

Then there is that inward fear which the nearness 
of God’s judgment awakens in the soul. It is 
characteristic of man to experience a certain dis¬ 
quiet, when he is to give account of any matter, 
even though it may not be of particular importance. 
Shall not then the soul shudder and tremble when 
she is to appear before her highest judge to give 
account of her whole life and to hear from His lips 
that judgment, as yet unknown to her, which will 
determine her eternal happiness or misery? For 
every one of us is conscious of sin, and, although a 
believing Christian may and should practise the 
virtue of hope, he cannot have absolute certainty 
that his debts are cancelled. And even in the case 
of the very holiest souls the light of confident as¬ 
surance of the divine mercy is sometimes darkened 
in the final hour of trial. And not only the verdict 
but the entire procedure of the heavenly court is 
wrapped in mystery, increasing the soul’s terror. 
We can make preparation for a human court of 


120 Fifth Fay; First Meditation. 

judgment; we can prepare for anything that is 
likely to happen; we can think of how we shall be 
led before the judge, what questions he will ask us, 
how we shall answer and defend ourselves. But 
of God’s court of judgment we can have no clear 
conception whatever. We know indeed what will 
take place, but we do not know how it will take 
place; we cannot imagine how we shall all at once 
find ourselves before the judgment seat of Christ, 
what language is spoken among spirits, how exam¬ 
ination and sentence and the carrying out of the 
sentence can all be completed in a moment. 

Second Point. 

And to this anguish of the body and these inner 
conflicts of the soul there is frequently added the 
violent assault of the implacable enemy of our sal¬ 
vation. “ The devil is come down unto you, having 
great wrath, knowing that he hath but a short 
time” (Apoc. xii. 12). He knows that if he does 
not now win the soul, it will be lost to him forever. 
He therefore prepares for this last conflict and em¬ 
ploys all his weapons of direct violence and subtle 
temptation. Now it is unbelief, now it is luke¬ 
warmness, now it is impatience, now pride or dis¬ 
trust with which he seeks to surprise the soul and 
to pervert it. But his greatest and most dangerous 
weapon is the temptation to despair. The more 
presumptuous a man has been during his past life, 
the more he has cherished within himself a mis¬ 
taken trust in the mercy of God, the more difficult 
it is for him at the end of life to awaken in himself 


121 


Of the Death-Struggle. 

real trust in God, and tlie more disposed is lie to 
despair. Those persons in religion too, who have 
not troubled themselves much to attain to perfection 
in their calling, must expect this temptation. In the 
hour of death the devil will not fail to reproach them 
with their disobedience to their vows and rules, 
their disregard of divine exhortations, their mis¬ 
use of the means of grace, their wastefulness of 
time and their attachment to earthly things, and to 
attempt to distort their minds and to destroy in 
them the hope of salvation. A nun who, after her 
death, appeared to Blessed Margaret Alacoque, 
confessed that during her religious life she had 
chiefly been guilty of three great faults: want of 
love toward the Sisters, too great a readiness to 
seek exemptions from the rules and common 
usages, and too great an eagerness to provide com¬ 
forts and indulgences for the body. As a punish¬ 
ment for these three faults she had to suffer three 
violent attacks of the wicked fiend, during each of 
which she believed herself to be lost, and only the 
special help of the Most Blessed Yirgin saved her 
all these three times from the claws of the evil 
spirits. 

This conflict with Satan naturally becomes more 
severe if the physical and mental powers are 
broken. We all know how difficult it is to uplift 
the heart to God and to make definite acts of devo¬ 
tion when great bodily pain dulls the spirit and 
confuses the mind. How can those remain stead¬ 
fast in this conflict who have never learned in life 
to bear their cross patiently, to give up their own 


122 


Fifth Day: First Meditation. 

opinions, and to offer a powerful resistance to tlieir 
temptations? To people in the world one can 
bring aid by ghostly advice and comfort; but what 
impression are these likely to make upon priests 
and religious who know all these by heart, who 
have heard such words daily and used them for the 
benefit of others, and whom the habit of performing 
their spiritual exercises mechanically and without 
spirit has long rendered indifferent to them. Ex¬ 
ceptional grace clearly is required to enable such a 
sold to pass successfully through the severe temp¬ 
tations of the hour of death. But will God always 
grant such exceptional grace? Will God always 
send the Blessed Virgin or one of His saints on 
such an extraordinary errand, when the soul 
throughout its entire spiritual career has not used 
the ordinary means to gain power and grace for 
such conflicts? There is good reason to doubt 
this. Where it is a question of eternal salvation 
one should not, so far as this may be in one’s 
power, expose one’s self to the smallest danger and 
should always adopt the safer way, yes, the safest 
way of all. 

Third, Point. 

This trying hour then awaits us too, and none of 
us can tell through what conflicts he may have to 
pass. But as heaven or hell depends on this hour 
it is necessary that we should be fully prepared. 
Many have left the world and its gifts and hopes 
and have retired into the seclusion of a religious 
house, in order to learn that art of all arts: how to 


123 


Of the Death-Struggle. 

die well. And they have acted wisely, for no one 
can become master of his art who has not exercised 
himself in it long and diligently. Many are not 
disposed to take much pains with this preparation, 
and comfort themselves with the thought that they 
are detached from the things of this world and 
they are glad to die. But this is not sufficient, for it 
is not merely a question of dying, but a question of 
dying well. There are many persons in the world, 
too, who are weary and tired of life; but whatuse 
is it to them if they cannot make up their minds 
to live according to the will of God and to fight 
that good fight the juice of which is eternal life? 
The best prej^aration for a happy death, therefore, 
is a pure, zealous, and perfect walk of life; for as a 
rule our death is according to our life. In the con¬ 
dition in which a last sickness surjuises a man, in 
that condition he generally jmsses to the judgment- 
seat of God, and it is a rare exception that the acts 
of j>rej)aration bring about any appreciable change 
in him. In sjnte of this numbers of persons in 
the world j>ut off their conversion to the hour of 
death, or at least to the time of old age, and we all 
know how foolish and juesumjfiuous this is. But 
what are we to say to those religious who, although 
they do not defer their conversion to a Christian 
life, nevertheless put off that to a perfect life. 
This too is foolish and presumptuous. It is foolish 
because this conversion too becomes more difficult 
in juoportion as it is deferred. For the longer 
one gives free play to unruly passions, the greater 
becomes their j>ower over the soul, the firmer is the 


124 


Fifth Day ; First Meditation . 

bond of habit drawn, and the greater is the force 
needed to tear it to pieces. Such a man is like a 
traveller who has a long and troublesome journey 
before him, but who, instead of setting out at once, 
enters upon byroads which lead away from his 
journey’s end, and over which he spends so much 
unnecessary time and strength that he exposes him¬ 
self to the danger of not reaching the end at all. 
But such delay is also presumptuous, because we 
may not assign to God a time when we intend mak¬ 
ing use of His graces; because effectual graces are 
not lasting ones but mere passing impulses which 
may never return unless they are made use of at 
once, and because one becomes more and more un¬ 
worthy of them the oftener one rejects them. Let 
us not be slow then in entering seriously upon the 
path of perfection and continue on it, so that the 
evening of our life, the end of our journey, may not 
come upon us and find us far from the right way. 
Let us be diligent like the wise virgins in trimming 
our lamps, so that the oil of our zeal may not be 
burnt up through our long hesitation, and there 
suddenly come the cry at midnight: “ The Bride¬ 
groom cometli; let us go forth to meet Him.” The 
foolish virgins were too late in seeking to replenish 
their lamps and to light them when the Bridegroom 
had already come. They found the doors shut, 
and all their calling and knocking availed not to 
oj)en them again. 

But the one means of being certain in life and 
death that we are on the right path is to have the 
way shown to us by a spiritual leader. God does 


125 


Of the Death-Struggle. 

not as a rule guide us directly. He attaches His 
graces and blessings to the mediation of human 
instruments. He often gives us light for others, 
but not for ourselves. For this reason even the 
saints caused their souls to be discerned and ex¬ 
amined and judged by others, even though they 
themselves possessed the gift of the discerning of 
spirits in a very high degree. Such, therefore, as 
surrender themselves with childish simplicity to 
the leading of a spiritual guide and blindly sub¬ 
mit their judgment to his can never be deceived, 
for there can be no self-deception in humility and 
obedience, and the divine promises cannot fail. 
And those who during life have got in the habit 
of being directed will have no difficulty in dispers¬ 
ing all the delusions of Satan in the hour of death. 
But those who are in the habit of guiding them¬ 
selves, of settling their own doubts and choosing 
their own ways, can never be certain whether they 
have decided and chosen aright. For however safe 
they may consider themselves to be, the higher 
testimony and verification will always be lacking. 
It will always remain possible that self-love has 
led them astray, or that Satan, transformed as an 
angel of light, has deceived them; and in the hour 
of death they will ever be in danger of having to 
pass through severe conflicts and temptations. 


126 


Fifth Day; Second Meditation. 


SECOND MEDITATION. 

OF THE PARTICULAR JUDGMENT. 

“ For we must all be manifested before the judgment-seat of 
Christ” (2 Cor. v. 10). 

First Point. 

Immediately after death takes place the particu¬ 
lar judgment. Its character is such as to render 
it severe and terrible to us. In the first place 
the Judge is also the offended one, who will see 
that justice is done. The soul will there see its 
Lord and God for the first time in His most sacred 
humanity; but not as a babe in the manger, not 
as a Saviour suffering on the cross, no longer as 
a sacrifice of love under the humble appearances 
of bread, but in the full majesty of an infinitely 
holy and just God who has been offended by His 
creatures. It will be an overwhelming sight for 
those who have not died in His grace, who have 
despised His love to the end, and who have, as. it 
were, still the moisture of that sacred blood upon 
them which they have trodden under foot. But it 
will also be a dreadful thing for those who are only 
stained with venial sin and earthly attachment to 
stand before the Holy of Holies in so unclean a 
garment. 

Secondly, the Judge is an incorruptible and in¬ 
exorable Judge, whose severe justice nothing will 
be able to resist. A human judge is sometimes 
moved to pity by supplication and entreaty, or by 


127 


Of the Particular Judgment. 

the eloquence of the accused or of his counsel; 
sometimes some circumstance induces him to adopt 
a lenient course. But here the soul, weighed down 
by the burden of its transgressions, stands facing 
its Judge all alone, without an advocate; accused 
by many and defended by none. She cannot justify 
herself; she has nothing to advance which is likely 
to mitigate the judgment; there is nothing that 
will move the heart of the Judge to pity. For her 
the long night in which no man can work has al¬ 
ready come. So long as there remains a single 
breath of life, man may still draw down the divine 
pity and avail himself of the infinite merits of 
Jesus Christ; he can still rouse himself to meri¬ 
torious acts, can purify himself, do penance, offer 
satisfaction, lessen his punishment and his guilt, 
and add to the splendor of his crown; but the 
last breath of life once drawn everything remains 
throughout all eternity as it is at that moment. 

Finally the Judge is an omniscient Judge, from 
whose all-penetrating glance, searching both the 
heart and the reins, nothing can be concealed. 
Everything will be examined into, will be recog¬ 
nized and judged, from the first moment that man 
was capable of sinning to the last of his earthly 
state of probation. All the works, words, and 
thoughts, the most secret purposes, desires, and 
affections of the heart will be weighed on just scales 
to be reckoned either as merit or as guilt, as reward 
or as punishment. Everything will reappear, 
however long it had been forgotten and been effaced 
from memory, and not only the sins and the good 


128 Fifth Day; Second Meditation. 

left undone, but also some of our good works, if 
stained by self-will and self-love and not done from 
pure intention, will go to increase the weight of 
our guilt. 

And the rule and standard by which we shall be 
judged is the natural law written in the human 
heart, that evangelical law which binds all men to¬ 
gether. A religious is further bound by his holy 
rule, that law of higher perfection which by his 
vow he has voluntarily taken upon himself. It is, 
therefore, commonly held that at the particular 
judgment of a religious the founder of his order 
will be present. And in one of his encyclical 
letters the holy founder of our order declares that 
he will at the judgment accuse those superiors who 
by their weakness and indulgence have caused 
laxness of the observance of rule in the - congre¬ 
gation. 

Second Point. 

But may not we who have consecrated ourselves 
to Our Lord in the religious life promise ourselves 
a milder judgment ? It is certain that a religious 
who lives faithfully, according to his vocation, is 
more easily guarded from sin, rises again more 
easily when he has fallen through human weak¬ 
ness, effaces the guilt of such falls, and performs 
his merited penance, and thus altogether gains 
merits more easily than any other believer. Every¬ 
thing he does within the sphere of his obedience 
and vocation, however trivial it may be, has a pe¬ 
culiar merit before God, is indeed the sweet-smell- 


Of the Particular Judgment. 129 

ing savor of tliat great sacrifice of love which he 
lias personally offered to the Lord by his vows 
and which brings a continuous blessing upon all 
his actions. But when it is a question of sins, 
which a religious has not wiped out, done penance 
for, and covered up with the mantle of love here in 
this world, it must be equally clear for many self- 
evident reasons that these will be judged not by a 
milder but a more severe judgment. 

Our judgment will be more severe, firstly because 
of our better knowledge as to our duty. Those 
living in the world will be able to excuse themselves 
in many things on the ground of ignorance. But 
can we hope to do this who are instructed in all 
Christian perfection, and who are fed daily, nay 
almost hourly, with the word of God, the rules of 
the saints, and the teaching of the greatest of spir¬ 
itual men ? It is written: “ And that servant who 
knew the will of his lord and prepared not himself, 
and did not according to his will, shall be beaten 
with many stripes. But he that knew not and did 
things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few 
stripes” (Luke xii. 47, 48). And our case will be 
aggravated by the numerous graces we have re¬ 
ceived. Among persons in the world many will be 
able to excuse themselves because these same means 
of grace and aids to virtue and perfection were not 
within their reach. But will this serve as an excuse 
for us, who live in the midst of spiritual abundance, 
and to whom the doors and sources of grace are 
open at all times if we will but enter in and partake 
of them? “Woe to thee, Corozain, woe to thee, 


130 Fifth Day ; Second Meditation . 

Betlisaida,” Our Lord once exclaimed; "for if in 
Tyre and Sidon had been wrought the mighty 
works that have been wrought in you, they would 
have done penance long ago, sitting in sackcloth 
and ashes. But it shall be more tolerable for 
Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you” 
(Luke x. 13, 14). 

Our case, lastly, will be further aggravated be¬ 
cause of our ingratitude for so many particular 
graces and favors. The nearer a man stands to 
the person he offends the closer and more intimate 
the bonds which bind him to him; the greater 
the kindness and favors he has received from 
him, the more will that person be pained by 
his injustice and the more deserving will he be¬ 
come of punishment. Our Saviour was asked by 
the prophet: “ What are these wounds in the midst 
of Thy hands?” And He answered: “ With these I 
was wounded in the house of them that loved Me” 
(Zach. xiii. 6). This was to show that the ingrati¬ 
tude of those who had wounded Him pained Him 
more than the wounds themselves. But wdiere has 
this saying a more striking application than in 
the case of religious, who live in the house of the 
Lord, who are His familiar friends, whom He 
loves more than all others, and who should there¬ 
fore love Him better than any other. Our Lord 
once showed to Blessed Margaret His heart full of 
love, wounded and pierced in many places, and 
said: "Look at the wounds which have been in¬ 
flicted on Me by My elect ones. Others contented 
themselves with bruising My body; but these 


Of the Particular Judgment. 131 

pierced My heart: that heart which has never 
ceased to love them. But My love will finally give 
place to My wrath, and I will punish these vain and 
earthbound souls, who seek their own glory, who 
have forsaken Me and My lowliness for the sake ol 
the creature.” 


Third Point. 

How very different will many things appear al 
the judgment of God from what they appear now 
“Every way of a man seemetli right to himself 
but the Lord weigheth the heart” (Prov. xxi. 2). 
How many consciences with all the elements out 
of which the}^ were formed will then melt like snow 
before the face of the divine Judge and will be scat¬ 
tered like chaff before the whirlwind? Many who 
with their eyes open transgress against the rule, 
act behind the backs of their superiors, are disloyal 
in their obedience, neglect the exercises and indulge 
their ease and comfort, are under the impression 
that they have formed their consciences and that 
the} r have grounds sufficient to excuse them before 
God; but at the judgment the matter will have 
quite a different aspect. When different duties 
and considerations are likely to clash, one may, it 
is true, and indeed one must sometimes form a 
conscience; but where the flesh stands opposed to 
the spirit, much distrust of self and much caution 
are called for. The matter must be seriously 
weighed before God in order to fathom one’s mo¬ 
tives and purposes, and one must in the future at 
least, if it is not possible to do so in the present, 


132 Fifth Day; Second Meditation. 

submit one’s self to tlie judgment of others. In no 
case must we allow those trivial reasons to suffice 
which self-love, or self-will, our natural apathy, or 
more human considerations suggest to us. The 
son of Sirach asks: “Who will set scourges over 
my thoughts, and the discipline of wisdom over my 
heart, that they spare me not in their ignorances, 
and that their sins may not appear, lest my ignor¬ 
ances increase and my offences be multiplied, and 
my sins abound, and I fall before my adversaries, 
and my enemy rejoice over me? 0 Lord, Father 
and God of my life, leave me not to their devices” 
(Ecclus. xxiii. 2-4). 

Many, too, hold themselves excused on the 
ground of inadvertence, and they comfort them¬ 
selves with the thought that at the particular 
moment they had no intention of committing a 
fault. But they should also ask themselves 
whether they have diligently practised both gen¬ 
eral and particular examination of conscience, 
whether they had the guidance of a director, 
whether they have meditated and prayed and re¬ 
newed their resolutions, and used all those well- 
known means without which one cannot attain to 
constant self-recollection. If they have not done 
this they dare not imagine that they are - free from 
guilt before God.; for he who desires the end must 
also desire the means, and, if he does not remove 
the obstacles, he is guilty, if not as regards the act, 
certainly as regards its cause. Tenderness of con¬ 
science is a precious gift, but one which, with the 
grace of God, can only be attained and preserved 


133 


Of the Particular Judgment. 

by constant spiritual exercise and incessant and 
careful cultivation. The consciences of those who 
live carelessly and indifferently may not be equally 
sensitive to that which is faulty, and such persons 
may not even be conscious that they are transgress¬ 
ing, but they will not be able to justify themselves 
on that account. Their position is similar to that 
of those in the world who live in mortal sin, and 
who, because their consciences are blunted experi¬ 
ence no sting of remorse either before or after the 
sinful act. Their guilt is greater rather than less, 
and in cases of that kind none of us can plead: “ I 
had formed my conscience; I did not know I was 
sinning. I never thought of sin at the moment”; 
for the divine Judge will answer: “ If thou liadst 
used the means which were at thy disposal and 
which thou wert bound to use in thy calling, I would 
thus have given thee the needful light to discern 
the truth both in thy thoughts and actions, and 
with it also strength to follow it.” “The heart is 
perverse above all things and unsearchable: who 
can know it ? I am the Lord that search the heart 
and prove the reins: who give to every one accord- 
mg to his way, and according to the fruit of his 
devices” (Jer. xvii. 9, 10). 


134 


Fifth Day; Third Meditation. 


THIRD MEDITATION. 

OF PURGATORY. 

“And the fire shall try every man’s work, of what sort it 
is” (1 Cor. iii. 13). 

First Point. 

It is known to be the teaching of the holy Fathers 
and theologians that the pains of purgatory exceed 
in severity all the pains of this life; that souls will 
there also have to suffer the pains of sense, and 
that the fire of purification in particular is d real 
and material fire. How material fire can act on 
pure spirits is, like many other things, a mystery 
and no less incomprehensible than the intimate 
union of the body with the soul here on earth. 
Here on earth it is always the spiritual part of 
man, too, which feels the pain, for the ponderous 
flesh is in itself incapable of experiencing such a 
sensation. And if the soul can suffer pain in this 
life through the mediumship of the body, why 
should it not suffer the same pains in the other life 
without the body? Why should not the fire or 
some other material directly cause pain to the soul ? 
This teaching is confirmed by the statements of 
many departed spirits who have appeared to the 
living after their death; and although the evi¬ 
dence is of an extraordinary kind, a large propor¬ 
tion of the facts and the credibility of the persons 
who experienced them are so thoroughly proved 


Of Purgatory. lo5 

and placed beyond doubt that, within the limits of 
reason and a believing disposition, one cannot dis¬ 
credit these testimonies. According to the holy 
Fathers, the fire of purgatory does not differ from 
the fire of hell. “ It is the same fire, ” says St. 
Thomas (in Snppl. q. 69, art. 8) “ that torments 
the reprobate in hell and the just in purgatory.” 
“The least pain in purgatory,” he adds, “sur¬ 
passes the greatest sufferings of this life. ” He does 
not even except the greatest sufferings of the mar¬ 
tyrs, saying that this fire does not burn with a 
mere natural force, but, like the fire of hell, with 
an increased supernatural power as a scourge of 
God. The holy bishop and doctor St. Augustine 
remarks, in his explanation of the 37tli Psalm: 
“ Because it is said, ‘But he himself shall be saved’ 
(1 Cor. iii. 15), many make light of this fire. 
Yet, though one may be saved by this fire, it will 
be more painful than any suffering of this life, and 
you well know what great pains the wicked have 
already endured and may endure in this life, yet 
they endure only such as the good must likewise 
endure. For what has the sorcerer, adulterer, 
criminal, and blasphemer justly suffered that the 
martyr did not suffer in confessing Christ? 
Though the pains on earth are so much less, yet 
see how men comply with every suggestion in 
order to escape them. How much better is it, 
therefore, to obey the commands of God, in order 
to escape thereby those far greater evils.” 


136 


Fifth Day : Third Meditation . 


Second Point. 

But however great such and similar pains may 
be, they are very small compared with what is in¬ 
volved in being shut out from the beatific vision of 
God. Unsatisfied longing is, as we all know, one 
of the greatest tortures which our souls can ex¬ 
perience, and it increases in proportion to the 
greatness of the good we desire, in proportion as 
we recognize its worth and the happiness of pos¬ 
sessing it. What a torment, therefore, must be the 
longing after the highest Good for the souls in 
purgatory. Here on earth all our knowledge of 
God is imperfect, is in part so limited by the 
frailty of our mortal bodies, and we only see as in 
a glass darkly. But the soul which has cast off 
the garment of mortality discerns at the moment of 
its judgment what an infinite treasure God is and 
what inexpressible happiness is involved in pos¬ 
sessing Him. She is no longer surrounded by the 
world of sense capable of dissipating her impres¬ 
sions; she desires no longer any earthly good 
which could draw her away from God; the clear¬ 
ness of this discernment can, therefore, no longer be 
effaced or diminished. But as the moment in which 
she beholds the face of God is also the moment in 
which she is banished again from His sight, she 
takes with her the sting of a burning desire after 
God which penetrates her inmost being and leaves 
her no rest, causing her severer torment than the 
consuming flames by which she is surrounded. 

And this torment of the suffering souls is greatly 


Of Purgatory. 137 

increased by the length of time, which already in 
purgatory seems to assume something of the char¬ 
acter of eternity, and which is measured by a stand¬ 
ard different from that employed here on earth. 
Time, moreover, has this peculiarity among many 
others, that its length or brevity does not appear 
the same to all men alike, but that it is as different 
in duration as the circumstances in which we find 
ourselves. Iu seasons of joy time flies as though 
it had wings; in seasons of pain it creeps along 
slowly as though it were lame; in seasons of en¬ 
joyment hours shrink into minutes; in seasons of 
expectation minutes expand into hours. Think of 
a sick man who passes the night in pain and with¬ 
out sleep, and who is anxiously awaiting the morn¬ 
ing to obtain help and ease. The swing of the 
pendulum from one side to the other, the time be¬ 
tween one second and the next, appears to him to 
be unbearably long, and the more attentively he 
observes the lapse of time the slower it seems to 
pass away and the more conscious is he of the 
painfulness of his position. Now, we may apply 
this comparison to purgatory, although it must 
still be considered inadequate, for in purgatory the 
minutes become days and the hours years, accord¬ 
ing to earthly calculations. We know of departed 
souls who believed themselves to have been several 
years in purgatory when their bodies had not yet 
been committed to the earth. Again, a sick man 
here in this world can do many things to render his 
condition more tolerable; he can at least turn from 
one side to the other and thus obtain some little 


138 


Fifth Day; Third Meditation. 

comfort. But the souls in purgatory are deprived 
of this consolation too, for they are quite incapable 
of securing for themselves the very smallest alleviation 
of their sufferings by their own efforts; they are fet¬ 
tered to their beds of xrnin without being able to 
move, and only by the love of those still living here 
on earth can help be vouchsafed to them. Let us, 
therefore, seek by works of love to render as much 
assistance to the suffering souls as we possibly can. 

Thomas a Kempis, the author of the “Following 
of Christ,” writes in the biography of St. Ludwina: 
“ This patient sufferer was afflicted throughout 
thirty-four years with the most painful diseases. 
In her repeated ecstasies she often saw her guar¬ 
dian angel, who led her to purgatory, where she 
saw the poor souls tortured in many different ways, 
according to the variety of their guilt. Among them 
she recognized many of her friends. Moved by this 
sight, she not only bore with the greatest patience 
her own excruciating pains, but took upon her¬ 
self many other painful works of penance. She 
constantly implored the infinite mercy of God for 
these poor souls, and often wept very bitterly over 
their misery.” Her biographer states that al¬ 
though she always redeemed a great number of 
souls by her penances, she increased this number 
on the principal feasts. 

Third Point. 

The safest way, then, of avoiding the punishments 
of purgatory is to avoid whatever may be the means 
of incurring them. The fear of purgatory alone 


Of Purgatory. 139 

will never suffice to make us kolv: still one must 
make use of everything which our holy faith offers 
us in the way of aids and motives. Our self-love 
is like a merchant who is in the habit of very care¬ 
fully weighing his gains and losses. Let us beat 
her then with her own weapons when she is bent 
upon gratifying her desires. Let us put the weight 
of punishment into the scales in order to convince 
her that she is mistaken in her calculations, and 
that it is far more profitable for her to deny herself 
the gratification than to have to do penance for it in 
purgatory. If somebody knew that he was to be 
burnt with red-hot irons or be put to the torture, 
whenever he gratified some lust or inclination, 
would he be so foolish as to purchase a moment’s 
pleasure at the cost of so much pain? This view 
of the matter is so clear that it would seem as 
though it could scarcely ever fail in its effect upon 
the believer. Unhappily, the effect is too frequently 
frustrated by the facility with which we hope to wipe 
out our venial sins, so far as their guilt and punish¬ 
ment are concerned. As soon as we have awakened 
within us a single act of contrition and have made 
our confession we are apt to be comforted without 
caring much about any further requirements, and if 
there should still be something lacking we hope to 
supply it by indulgences and the sacraments. 

It is right that we should have confidence in these 
means of grace; but we must not stretch them too 
far, and must not overlook the fact that punishment 
is never without guilt, and that guilt is neither 
remitted in the sacrament nor outside it, unless it 


140 


Fifth Day : Third Meditation. 

is sincerely repented of— i.e., unless repentance is 
accompanied by an effectual resolution to do better 
in tlie future. But this is only present when there 
is an earnest determination to use all needful means 
in order to be freed from certain faults, and there¬ 
fore to resolutely suppress all those evil inclina¬ 
tions from which they spring. For what is the 
use of detesting some faults if we do not detest the 
cause of them ? What is the use of cutting down 
the mere outward growth of a weed, but dare not 
attack its mischievous roots? Where, therefore, 
this inward purpose does not exist, repentance is 
but a self-deception, and nothing in the world, 
neither sacraments, nor indulgences, nor devotions 
of any kind, can supply the want. 

Those, therefore, who year by year continue in 
the same fault and who sin by carelessness in the 
observation of rules or indifference in spiritual ex¬ 
ercises, who offend through their indolence, their 
intemperance, or love of ease, who are talkative and 
unruly and indiscreet and vain and complaining, 
who are known for their self-will and bitterness and 
harsh judgment of their neighbors, and who have 
not the courage to attempt a radical cure of the cause 
of these faults, how can they comfort themselves 
with the mere repentance which they are seeking to 
awaken within themselves each day ? Have they not 
rather cause to fear lest purgatory alone will burn 
out of them the leaves and roots of these weeds, even 
though they may daily with their lips express the 
desire to die rather than to willingly commit a 
single venial sin? Purgatory both punishes and 


Of Purgatory. 


141 


purifies. Tlie soul lias there not only to clo pen¬ 
ance for its mortal and venial sins, for which she 
has not done sufficient penance on earth or offered 
satisfaction by indulgences; .she also has to be 
purified from all earthly attachments and inclina¬ 
tions which still cleave to her, and from which she 
had not severed her will at the time of her passing 
into eternity. Nothing unclean can enter heaven, 
and the soul cannot attain to the vision of God 
until the flames of purgatory have consumed in 
her all that is wood, hay, and stubble, and until 
they have purged out all earthly defilements. 
Every one, therefore, who does not attempt this 
purification from earthly desires already here in 
this world will most certainly have to undergo it in 
purgatory. 


St£tb Bap, 


FIRST MEDITATION. 

OF ETERNITY. 

“Man shall go into the house of his eternity” (Eccles. 
xii. 5). 

First Point. 

When the Lord God would show Job and his 
friends that His power and wisdom are immeasur¬ 
able, He asked him: “ Where wast thou when I 
laid the foundations of the earth ? tell me if thou 
hast understanding. Who hath laid the measures 
thereof, if thou knowest ? or who hath stretched 
the line upon it ? Upon what are its bases 
grounded, or who laid the corner-stone thereof, 
when the morning stars praised Me together, and 
all the sons of God made a joyful melody?” (Job 
xxxviii. 4-7.) We have no knowledge then even 
of this earthly tabernacle in which we dwell; we 
do not know on what foundations and corner-stone 
it rests; how can we hope to understand the house 
of eternity? Human reason, which can only deal 
with the temporal, with that which has a be¬ 
ginning and an end, is forced to conceive of some¬ 
thing which has neither beginning nor end, an 
eternal Being and an eternity. But it can neither 


143 


Of Eternity. 

grasp eternity, nor understand it, nor explain it, 
and rightly says one of the holy Fathers: “ When 
man wants to explain eternity, he talks as a blind 
man would of color. We may employ pictures, 
parables, symbols, such as a curled-up snake, a 
ring showing neither beginning nor end, a river 
flowing back into itself; but as soon as reason seeks 
to analyze these pictures, to form some conception 
of the matter, as soon as man attempts to throw 
light upon the depths of eternit} r , he is seized with 
giddiness and his thoughts fail him.” 

Blessed Henry Suso makes use of the following 
simile to form some kind of picture of the endless 
length of eternity: If the entire immeasurable 
sjmce of the world were filled up by a single stone, 
and a little bird came once every hundred thousand 
vea.rs and picked off a portion about the size of a 
tenth part of a grain of wheat, so that after a million 
of years only one grain of wheat had been picked 
off and the damned in hell were told, You are not 
to suffer eternally; when the stone is gone your 
sufferings shall have an end,—would not those un¬ 
happy ones rejoice exceedingly because they had 
at least hope to be released from their pain? And 
yet what an immeasurable space of time is this! 
Millions upon millions of men would want millions 
and millions of years in which to count up the 
number of years this space of time contains, even 
though each number may be pronounced in less 
than a second of time. It appears to us almost 
more than eternity because we can scarcely con¬ 
ceive of its end. And yet it as little constitutes 


144 


Sixth Day ; First Meditation. 

eternity as tlie last second which has just passed, 
seeing that nothing finite, however long we may 
conceive it to be, can compare with or even ap¬ 
proach the infinite. If any one, therefore, were to 
enter upon a compact that during this space of 
time he was to live amid all conceivable pleasures 
and enjoyments, to have everything his heart de¬ 
sires, and then to suffer eternal damnation, he 
would still be a fool; for the time would have to 
come when of these myriads of years the last mo¬ 
ment only remained, and when it was gone an 
eternal misery which would have no end would 
begin for him. And to reverse the case: if one 
could only purchase the bliss of heaven bf suffer¬ 
ing during this long space of time the most painful 
crosses and afflictions, he would still act wisely in 
entering upon such a compact, for a time would 
have to come when happiness and bliss without 
end would commence for him. 

Second Point. 

But whether we apprehend eternity or not, it 
will certainly apprehend us. 0 JEtemitas , cam te 
non capiam, tu me capies ! We need not enter into 
the house of eternity, we are already in it; it sur¬ 
rounds us on every side; it has already embraced 
us and made us captive so that we can no longer 
escape. As soon as a man is conceived in the 
womb, as soon as the omnipotence of God has 
called a reasonable soul out of nothing and united 
it with the germ of life, it can never again, according 
to the divine order, cease to be; it is from thence- 


145 


Of Eternity. 

forth as eternal as God Himself, except in that it 
has a beginning, while the Supreme Being has 
neither beginning nor end. And not only is man 
himself eternal, but all his doings participate in a 
certain sense in this eternity; for, although every¬ 
thing in this world is subject to change, and our 
life passes away, like a mist before the rising sun, 
yet whatever we do and achieve is done and 
achieved for eternity. All visible nature will dis¬ 
solve, heaven and earth will pass away, the moun¬ 
tains will crumble to pieces, the seas will dry up, 
infinite space together with the planets which peo¬ 
ple it will vanish away; but the thoughts of men, 
their words and works, both good and evil, will not 
pass away. They will continue to live in an eternal 
reward or an eternal punishment, in proportion as 
they have increased or decreased human guilt or 
merit. 

In so far then as eternity is a state of being with¬ 
out end, we cannot get any nearer to it because we 
are already living in it. But that eternity which 
is for each one of us the end of all time, and where 
all change and variableness cease, we are approach¬ 
ing more closety every hour. It is but a thin 
wall which hides from us the mysteries of the 
other world. It is that space of time given to each 
one of us in which to gain after a short conflict the 
palm of victory. This wall is every moment crum¬ 
bling more and more to pieces, and every second is 
like a bird of prey picking off a small portion of 
it. And no one knows how much of it has been 
picked off already; no one knows whether the hour 


146 Sixth Day ; First Meditation. 

is not already very near, in which the last frag¬ 
ment of time measured out to him will sink into 
the great abyss, and death will lift the veil which 
is spread between this life and the next. After the 
lapse of fifty years at the most, all of us who are 
now here assembled will be on the other side of 
this veil, and will have seen and discovered and ap¬ 
prehended in the clear light of experience what we 
have only guessed and believed and hoped for here. 
“Before the mountains were made, or the earth 
and the world was formed: from eternity and to 
eternity Thou art God. Turn not man away to be 
brought low: and Thou hast said: Be converted, 
O ye sons of men. For a thousand years in Thy 
sight are but as yesterday, which is past and gone. 
And as a watch in the night, as things that are 
counted nothing, so shall their years be. In the 
morning man shall grow up like grass, in the 
morning he shall flourish and pass away: in the 
evening he shall fall, grow dry and wither. For 
in thy wrath we are quickly consumed, and are 
troubled in thy indignation. Thou hast set our 
iniquities before thy eyes, our life in the light of 
thy countenance” (Ps. lxxxix. 2-8). 

Third Point. 

And as we are already living in eternity and can¬ 
not possibly escape it, and as the end of our time 
is daily drawing nearer, we are to live, in anticipa¬ 
tion of our future possessions already here on earth, 
as though the things temporal had no longer any 
claim on us. Our conversation, according to the 


147 


Of Eternity. 

exhortation of the Apostle, should be in heaven, 
“from whence also we look for the Saviour, Our 
Lord Jesus Christ” (Phil. iii. 20). But because 
we are held back by the burden of our bodies, and 
because the weakness of our spirits does not per¬ 
mit of our walk being in heaven, we are to cherish 
at least heavenly thoughts and desires within us. 
Man must have some aim to which all his efforts 
are directed and which wholly occupies him; and if 
this aim is not something heavenly and spiritual, 
it is certain to be something earthly and sensual. 
“I say then,” says St. Paul to the Galatians (v. 16, 
17), “walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfil the 
lusts of the flesh. For the flesh lustetli against the 
spirit: and the spirit against the flesh; for these 
are contrary one to another.” To conquer the 
lust of the flesh, therefore, we must have the lust 
of the spirit. We are to lust constantly after an 
increase in virtue and perfectness, to grow in the 
love of Jesus Christ, and to have His image more 
clearly and vividly stamped upon us. This is the 
great thought which is to be constantly before our 
minds; this the great centre toward which all the 
desires of our hearts are to converge; this the 
impulse which is to set all our powers in motion. 

The lust after perfection is like the full bloom of 
the spiritual life, because it imparts to it, like the 
blossom does to the tree, the fruitfulness of good 
works, and also the charm of sweetness. It is the 
savor of the spiritual life, because it renders the 
yoke of Jesus Christ easy and His burden light, 
renders penance pleasant and the cross bearable. 


148 


Sixth Day; First Meditation. 

It is tlie salt of the spiritual life, because it 
quickens tlie sameness of the daily exercises, drives 
away weariness, fills the heart with enthusiasm and 
the soul with the unction of devotion, and thus 
saves us from the corruption of the ordinary daily 
commonplace life. This eager longing after per¬ 
fection is, therefore, so necessary and essential to 
the true spiritual life that nobody will attain to 
anything like spiritual perfection who does not 
unceasingly cultivate it within himself. Wliat we 
really do and.acliieve can never exceed the measure 
of our desires and resolutions; as a rule it does 
not even go so far as that. Even if we aim high 
we shall fall below our aim by reason of our weak¬ 
ness. Those who aim low are in danger of miss¬ 
ing their aim altogether. 

But no one should allow himself to be deterred 
from it by entertaining mistaken ideas of the words 
perfection and holiness, or be discouraged even 
from striving after such a high aim by thinking 
of the exceptional lives of the saints. “ For as in 
one body we have many members,” says St. Paul, 
“ but all the members have not the same office, so 
we being many, are one bod}' in Christ, and every 
one members one of another. And having differ¬ 
ent gifts, according to the grace that is given us” 
(Rom. xii. 4-6). A certain degree of perfection is 
set before every one of us, corresponding to his 
particular talents and cax>abilities, to the graces be¬ 
stowed upon him, and to his exterior conduct. 
There are certain things which God demands of 
each man in each particular condition of life, seeing 


149 


Of Eternity. 

that these are as a rule already involved in the call 
to that condition. There are, on the other hand, 
other things which God demands of those who are 
specially called by Him. The chief thing, upon 
which all depends, is that our heart should be sin¬ 
cere toward God. As long as we continue in the 
way of entire humility and childlike obedience, 
seeking God alone in undisguised singleness of 
heart and endeavor to do what we believe to be His 
holy will, God is not likely to depart from us, and 
all the faults which we still commit and the weak¬ 
nesses still cleaving to us will not deprive us of 
the particular guidance of His grace. But if a 
certain insincerity has crept into our heart, if our 
heart has become divided and double-minded; if 
besides God we give place to certain inclinations, 
if we seek to evade the known will of God and en¬ 
deavor to persuade ourselves by sophistry that God 
does not demand of us certain sacrifices, then otir 
position is no longer a safe one. “A perverse 
heart is abominable to the Lord: and His will is 
in them that walk sincerely” (Prov. xi. 20). “For 
our glory is this,” says the Apostle, “the testi¬ 
ng ony of our conscience, that in simplicity of heart 
and sincerity of God, and not in carnal wisdom, but 
in the grace of God, we have conversed in this 
world” (2 Cor. i. 12). 


150 


Sixth Day; Second Meditation. 


SECOND MEDITATION. 

OF HELL. 

“He also shall drink of the wine of the w v ath of God . . . 
and shall he tormented with tire and brimstone in the sight of 
the holy angels and in the sight of the Lamb” (Apoc. xiv. 
10 , 11 ). 

First Point. 

There is a place where those whom God has re¬ 
jected, and who are separated from Him forever, 
suffer unspeakable pains. These are twofold: the 
pain consequent upon the loss of God, and the pain 
of sense. This is an article of faith. That the tor¬ 
menting fire is a real and actual fire is the universal 
opinion of the holy Fathers and of theologians. 
That there is a pain of sense is evident from the 
different expressions of Holy Scripture. Eternal 
night and darkness and the shadows of death fill 
this prison house of divine wrath, in which the 
souls, and after the last day the bodies too, of the 
damned are enclosed; for although the fire of hell 
burns and consumes the marrow of the bones, it 
gives no light. Nevertheless the damned can see 
everything that is painful and terrible to the sight: 
they can see themselves and their dreadful sur¬ 
roundings, the torture of their fellow-sufferers, and 
the horrible faces of the spectres of hell. 

“The worst sufferings one can have in this life,” 
says St. Augustine, “ are not only small, but actu¬ 
ally nothing when contrasted with the torments of 
the damned.” Because all the pains and torments 
in the world are but instruments set in motion by 
weak creatures; but in hell it is the almighty and 


151 


Of Hell. 

angry, avenging God who measures out chastise¬ 
ment to evil-doers. There in eternity there will 
be a full outpouring of the divine wrath. Tor just 
as in heaven God when rewarding His servants 
employs, so to speak, all His perfections to make 
an infinite happiness of joys and delights for His 
dear friends and chosen children, so also the 
avenging God will assemble all His perfections 
to punish with endless torments and unceasing 
misery and pain His enemies who despised Him. 
He will punish them according to His infinite wis¬ 
dom, His infinite justice, His infinite holiness, His 
omnipotence, His immensity, His majesty, His 
eternity, in a word, as Tertullian says, “according 
to the fulness of His divinity.” 

These are but opinions, it is true, and not 
articles of faith; but what do those gain who repu¬ 
diate them and who regard those passages of Holy 
Scripture upon which they are based as mere 
figures and parables? They gain nothing at all, 
for they will have to admit that the figure does not 
come up to the reality, and that the pain experi¬ 
enced by the damned is far greater than any i>ain 
of which we can form any conception. Let us 
imagine a man lying across fiery bars of iron while 
his body is being torn and lacerated by the most 
dreadful instruments of torture and horrid monsters 
gnawing at his bowels, and let us assume that this 
is a mere parable. Still it remains certain that the 
pain of the damned must be infinitely greater than 
any pain that can be inflicted upon a living body 
here on earth. If there is an exceeding fulness of 
peace, joy, beauty, brightness, and bliss where God 


152 


Sixth Day; Second Meditation. 

is, reason alone recognizes the very opposite must 
be the case where God is not. Where God is not, 
where eternal separation from Him reigns, there 
must be a horror of desolation, including all that 
is painful and terrible and misshapen and hideous 
and abominable. “ It had been better for him if he 
had never been born,” testifies the Eternal Truth 
concerning the traitor Judas. 

Second Point. 

Greater still, hoivever, are the irnvard torments of 
the lost. All the powers of their souls are in the 
wildest tumult, in the most horrible disorder. The 
mind torments itself to discover a means of escape 
from this unspeakable misery. The will, wholly 
confirmed in evil, incessantly rebels against God 
and against His punishing justice, and consumes 
itself in impotent madness at the hopelessness of 
these efforts. Memory resembles a vast and bitter 
sea, tossing to and fro in the storms of a frenzied 
imagination and foaming out its shame. On the 
one hand these unhappy ones recall to their mem¬ 
ories the short sinful pleasures which were the 
cause of their damnation; on the other they reflect 
what a price they have to pay for them, and they 
are thus torn by a despairing regret that their 
happiness lay within their power, but that they 
trifled it aw T ay in the indulgence of their miserable 
fleeting passions. They recognize now that with¬ 
out God all is vain and worthless; they know what 
an infinite treasure it is to possess Him: but they 
know at the same time that they have lost this high - 


153 


Of Hell 

est Good forever and ever. And it is this conscious¬ 
ness which, according to the testimony of the 
Fathers, is the greatest punishment of all. For 
that which really makes hell hell is its eternity. 
In all the sufferings of this earthly life we have 
either means of relieving them, or there is the hope 
that they will pass away after a time; or there 
always remains at least the comfort that death will 
terminate them some time. But in hell there is 
no hope; for the damned there is no death; for 
their misery there is no relief; to their suffering 
there is no end. When they have suffered as many 
years as there are leaves on the trees or drops in 
the ocean or grains of sand by the shore, they have 
then only suffered as long a period as the number 
of the leaves and drops and grains signify: but 
they will not on that account have to suffer one 
minute less or have thereby paid off a portion of 
the duration of their suffering. Upon the night in 
which they live follows no day; however many 
hours the clock may strike, it will never strike 
the hour of their redemption. The finger points 
to eternity; suffering always and forever, never, 
never to be released. 

But if we require some witness speaking from 
experience as to the terrible nature of these tor¬ 
ments, we need but listen to St. Teresa, who was 
once taken to hell in her body in a miraculous man¬ 
ner, and who experienced its torments just as though 
she was one of the number of the damned. This 
saint describes a narrow place wrapped in perpet¬ 
ual darkness, in which one could in an inexplicable 


154 Sixth Day ; Second Meditation. 

manner see everything without the smallest glim¬ 
mer of light. The ground was a sort of slimy bog, 
from which there ascended fetid odor and in which 
poisonous snakes moved about. “ Although every¬ 
thing I saw,” she says, “was much more horrible 
than I can describe, the impression it made uj^on 
me is nothing compared to the anguish I felt there. 
My soul burnt like a fire, whose fierceness imag¬ 
ination cannot picture, while my body was being 
tormented by unbearable pain, in comparison with 
which all that I have suffered in this earthly life 
through evil spirits or the most dreadful sickness 
is as nothing, and in which I had the awful cer¬ 
tainty that it would last forever. But a torment 
still greater than this was a kind of death-struggle 
which my soul endured and which was accom¬ 
panied by indescribable sadness, anguish, and 
despair; in which a dreadful sense of oppression 
scarcely enabled me to draw breath. If I were to 
say that the soul was torn forcibly from my body 
this would only be a faint picture of what she un¬ 
derwent ; for it is there no outside power depriving 
her of life; it is the soul herself tearing herself as 
it were because she cannot escape the fierceness of 
the fire and the despair consuming her.” 

Third Point. 

“ Pierce thou my flesh with thy fear: for I am 
afraid of thy judgments” (Ps. cxviii. 120). Thus ex¬ 
claims the Boval Prophet and he asks the Lord for 
the gift of holy fear, since he is convinced that this 
gift is necessary for his own salvation and for that 


155 


Of Hell 

of all men. If God had not revealed to ns that 
there is a hell and eternal damnation, but a very 
small number even of those who will now be saved 
would live according to the commandments of God 
and would work our their salvation. The asser¬ 
tion that there are perfect souls who constantly live 
in a state in which they love God for His own sake 
and irrespective of heaven and hell has been re¬ 
jected by the Church. We are by no means such 
noble and elevated beings as certain unbelieving 
philosophers would represent us to be. We are 
poor, weak, and wretched creatures, corrupt in 
our very nature by the {)oison of original sin. 
Our spirit is full of pride; in our body we are like 
the animals, and both require that the fear of hell 
should restrain them and keep them humble. 

Fear alone, it is true, is not sufficient, and, al¬ 
though it is a gift of the Holy Ghost in so far as it 
prepares the way for a man’s conversion, it cannot 
justify him unless it is at least initially united to 
love, and it cannot even then make him perfect, un¬ 
less it becomes the ruling power in him. On the 
other hand, however, love needs holy fear, for it 
does not always possess sufficient power to conquer 
the pleasures of earthly passion by the higher 
X)leasures of heavenly desires; it requires a means 
which, by pointing to the punishment of sense, 
weakens and destroys the sensual desire itself. It 
requires a lash bringing the flesh in subjection when 
the spirit is surprised by some sudden assault or 
by great dryness, so that it cannot rise to the use 
of the weapons of love. Great servants of God 


156 Sixth Day ; Second Meditation. 

have said of themselves that they have sometimes 
found themselves in a state in which the mere 
thought of hell was sufficient to protect them from 
fierce temptation and to save them from sin. We 
learn from the life of St. Teresa that she regarded 
these miraculous glimpses of hell as one of the 
greatest mercies the Lord had ever vouchsafed to 
her; for from that moment the most difficult tasks 
had become easy to her; she had lost all desire for 
the tilings leading to the verge of such an awful 
precipice, and she had never ceased praising God 
with a thankful heart that His mercy had rescued 
her from such terrible and eternal torments. Is 
our love so much greater than that of St. Teresa 
and of so many other saints that we can dispense 
with the fear of hell? There are persons who 
speak with rapture of the love of God and who 
would seem to overflow with the sweetness of di¬ 
vine love, but who nevertheless deny the true faith 
or continue to live a grossly immoral life. Such 
love is manifestly not a genuine love, but a delu¬ 
sion of Satan. 

We should, therefore, all of us without exception, 
frequently consider the pains of hell in order to 
keep alive within ourselves the holy fear of God 
and a horror of sin. We have all been told: “ De¬ 
scend frequently during thy life into hell , so thou 
wilt then not have to descend thither after thy death .” 
“In all thy works remember thy last end, and thou 
slialt never sin” (Ecclus. vii. 40). And we too who 
serve God in the religious state must not imagine 
that hell and damnation do not concern us any 


Of the General Judgment. 157 

longer on that account. If the religious dress in it¬ 
self does not save us from mortal sin, it will not save 
us from hell, and those for whom it is still possible 
to commit mortal sin have no guaranty that they 
may not after all be damned. We have already 
seen in the course of one of our meditations that 
the grace of God may gradually depart from zeal¬ 
ous souls, unless they make diligent use of it and 
continue in their first zeal. Let us therefore ex¬ 
claim daily with St. Augustine: “ Come, O Lord, 
cut away, burn, strike down, only spare me in 
eternity ! May the merciful Lord but save us, 
whatever the price of our salvation may be!” 


THIRD MEDITATION. 

OF THE GENERAL JUDGMENT. 

“ Let them arise, and let the nations come up into the Valley 
of Josaphat: for there I will sit to judge all nations round 
about” (Joel iii. 12). 

First Point. 

Our holy faith teaches us that a day will come 
on which Our Lord will judge all men together. 
That day is called the last day, because time will 
be no more, and this visible world, together with 
time and space in which it moves, will pass away. 
The signs which shall precede that day are known 
from Holy Scripture. The stars shall fall from 
heaven, the pow T ers of heaven shall be shaken; 
there will be the sign of the Son of man, and He 
Himself will appear in the clouds of heaven with 


158 


Sixth Day; Third Meditation. 

great power and glory, and He will send His angels 
before Him with the sound of the trumpet. Then 
shall the graves open, the earth and the sea shall 
give up their dead; the dead shall arise and the 
souls of the departed shall be reunited to their 
bodies. And when all are gathered together, from 
our first parents Adam and Eve to the last soul 
just passed away, the judgment will begin and all 
will be brought to light whatever the entire human 
race has done from the very beginning of the world 
until now. Then shall the Judge separate the na¬ 
tions one from another, like a shepherd separates 
his sheep from the goats. And He shall set the 
sheep to His right, but the goats on His left. To 
the first He shall say: “ Come, ye blessed of My 
Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you 
from the foundation of the world.” But to the 
others: “Depart from me, you cursed, into ever¬ 
lasting fire which was prepared for the devil and 
his angels.” 

Terror-stricken the lost will then behold their 
bodies with which to their greater torment the soul 
has once more united itself, and which, a reflection 
of the soul, will be loathsome and misshapen like it. 
With shame and disgrace will they then say to the 
mountains: Fall upon us! and to the hills: Cover 
us! With remorse and despair they will look up 
to the elect and say: “ These are they, whom we 
had some time in derision, and for a parable of re¬ 
proach. We fools esteemed their life madness, and 
their end without honor. Behold how they are 
numbered among the children of God, and their 


159 


Of the General Judgment. 

lot is among the saints” (Wis. v. 3-5). But the 
elect will be glad and rejoice at the beauty and 
splendor of their transfigured bodies. They will 
shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father 
and stand before Him with great honor and glory. 

Time shall then finish its course and sink back 
into eternity, whence it issued. “ And time shall 
be no longer” (Apoc. x. 6). It will then no longer 
be possible to reckon by days, weeks, months, and 
years, for all reckoning will have passed away in 
the fathomless sea of eternity. Beneath the feet 
of the lost the abyss will open, will devour them 
amid curses and blasphemies, and will then be 
sealed. But the elect will enter the city of God, the 
heavenly Jerusalem, amid songs of joy and praise; 
the great conflict is past, the great separation is 
forever accomplished. God reigns eternally with 
His own amid the joys of heaven. Satan suffers 
forever with his own amid the torments of hell. 

Second Point. 

“ He seetli from eternity to eternity, and there is 
nothing wonderful before Him. There is no say¬ 
ing: What is this, or what is that? For all things 
shall be sought in their time. . . . All the works 
of the Lord are good, and He will furnish every 
work in due time. It is not to be said: This is 
worse than that: for all shall be well approved in 
their time” (Ecclus. xxxix. 25-40). 

The time then when all will be made clear and 
manifest is the General Judgment, and it is for 
this reason that it is held after the particular 


160 


Sixth Day; Third Meditation. 


judgment of each individual has already taken 
place. Here on earth the ways of God and the 
designs of His providence are for the most part 
wrapt in mystery. The divine order of the world 
is as it were a building, of which only single parts’ 
may be discerned through the veil of darkness 
which is covering it, but of whose plan and outline 
we can obtain no general view. On that great day, 
however, all will be made manifest ; the veil will be 
removed; the entire immense building, ordered 
according to infinite wisdom, justice, and mercy, 
will appear before the sight of all men in all 
its clearness and beauty and majesty. The honor 
of God will there be duly vindicated; those who 
have done well and who were here on earth de¬ 
spised and trodden down will receive their well- 
merited reward, and their despisers and oppressors 
their well-merited dishonor. “ The Lord hath 
made all things for Himself: the wicked also for 
the evil day” (Prov. xvi. 4). 

With one single glance we shall be able by God’s 
power to view the entire history of the world; that 
of races and nations as well, as of single families 
and persons, with all their secret intentions, mo¬ 
tives, and impulses. Our own as well as the life 
of each single person will be disclosed to every eye 
like an open book. The great secret of human 
freedom and of grace will there become clear and 
comprehensible to us, and we shall understand 
why one was accepted and another rejected. We 
shall understand why in some instances .a few and 
even one single sin filled up the cup of God’s 


161 


Of the General Judgment. 

wrath; while in others, even a thousand sins did 
not suffice to fill it. We shall understand how fre¬ 
quently that which we short-sightedly regarded as 
happiness was in reality misery and punishment, 
and that which we regarded as punishment was 
really grace. We shall be able to discern the con¬ 
nection between the history of each individual with 
that of the whole human race, and perceive what 
place it occupies, what stone it is in the building 
designed by God. That which seemed great will 
appear to us small; apparently splendid deeds will 
shrink together into nothing, into a mere grain of 
sand; and apparently insignificant deeds, hidden 
acts of self-conquest, known to God only, secret 
prayers and sighs and tears and the works of pen¬ 
ance of pious souls will stand out as great and 
prominent stones holding together entire arches 
of the great building. 

But we shall all have to recognize that God 
has acted in all things with absolute justice. The 
damned too will be compelled to acknowledge this. 
They will not be able to complain of the injustice 
of God, but they will in the wickedness of their im¬ 
penitent hearts curse God’s exceeding justice and 
holiness. They too will have to exclaim: “ The 
Lord is just in all His ways and holy in all His 
works” (Ps. cxliv. 17). “Thou art just, O Lord: 
and Thy judgment is right” (Ps. cxviii. 137). But 
the elect will magnify the mercy of God, and in the 
joy of their hearts will exclaim with the prophet: 
“ The mercies of the Lord I will sing forever” (Ps. 
lxxxviii. 1). 


162 


Sixth Day; Third Meditation. 


Third Point. 

The body, too, then will one day be a partaker 
of our glory, that is, if we have not entertained for 
it a mistaken and disordered affection here on 
earth. A holy penitent once said to his body: 
Thy life shall be a hard one here. I will chastise 
thee with the rod of penance and keep thee in 
severe bondage, so that thou mayst rejoice with me 
in the other better life throughout all eternity. But 
if we would follow this example and bring and con¬ 
stantly keep our bodies in bondage, it is above all 
things necessary that we should keep incessant 
w^atch over its wants. In this matter our nature is 
extremely crafty; it is apt to represent things as 
necessities which are not such, and to increase its 
demands in proportion as there is a disposition to 
yield to them. And if it cannot deceive us any 
other way, it makes health and the duty of preserv¬ 
ing or restoring it a cloak for covering its inten¬ 
tions. 

Sickness and bodily sufferings are some of the 
most prominent means employed by Divine Provi¬ 
dence to assist us to our goal and to make us per¬ 
fect. They are a very effective means of embitter¬ 
ing our earthly joys, of humiliating us, of keeping 
us in constant dependence upon God, of supple¬ 
menting the shortcomings of voluntary penance, 
and, by the crucifying of the flesh, of making the 
soul more receptive of heavenly things. But they 
may, on the other hand, hinder us from attaining 
salvation and perfection, if we lose sight in them 


Of the General Judgment. 163 

of tlie spirit of mortification. All those, therefore, 
who are suffering from wearisome maladies are 
exhorted by the constitutions of our order to be 
extremely careful and to be constantly at war with 
themselves, as they will otherwise soon be weighed 
down by the flesh, and instead of belonging to God 
belong wholly to themselves and become devoid of 
the spirit of prayer and mortification. As a rule 
human skill can do nothing in such a matter, since 
it is the hand of God Himself that has been laid 
upon us, and those who are determined to be freed 
from them, or at least to experience some ease, will 
only increase their burden instead of diminishing 
it. To make our health the highest aim of all our 
desires, to devote to our bodily condition the most 
careful and constant attention, to make the reme¬ 
dies against bodily ailments the subject of our 
most anxious study, is to live in hard and most 
ignominious bondage. Let those who are visited 
with such afflictions commit themselves wholly 
into the hands of God, bear their cross patiently, 
and not yield to the body more than is absolutely 
necessary; let them not cease from spiritual efforts 
and exercises and from the observance of rule. If 
this is more difficult for them than it is for others, 
their reward and merit will be all the greater, and 
their glorified bodies will shine with greater splen¬ 
dor the more they have suffered here and have en¬ 
dured mortification out of love for God. “For 
which cause we faint not,” says St. Paul, “but 
though our outward man is corrupted, yet the in¬ 
ward man is renewed day by day” (2 Cor. iv. 16). 


164 Sixth Day ; Third Meditation. 

Moreover not our bodies only, but our spirit too 
must be mortified, in expectation of the glory which 
shall be revealed. We must control and moderate 
the lusts of the spirit and an unruly love of knowl¬ 
edge. Knowledge is indispensable to a priest, who 
is to be a light in the world and the salt of the earth; 
without it he cannot fulfil the duties of his calling or 
accomplish anything, in however many virtues he 
may otherwise excel. To study with God and for 
the sake of God, to cultivate the mind and to acquire 
useful knowledge is therefore a necessary, a sacred, 
and a wholesome thing. But it is possible to 
study in order to satisfy curiosity, in order to 
gratify the lust of the spirit, and to find pleasure in 
the enjoyment which it yields; and this becomes 
an unnecessary, an unholy, and even a dangerous 
thing. Those who from such motives desire to 
know and inquire into everything, nourish within 
themselves the lust of self-love, which, like every 
other lust of this kind, separates them from God, 
and the more they yield to it the more are they in 
danger of parting with the simplicity of faith, of 
losing the unction of devotion, and of sacrificing 
even the whole of the interior life, and of finally 
falling into self-sufficiency and pride. “Knowl¬ 
edge,” St. Paul saith, “puffetli up, but charity 
edifieth” (1 Cor. viii. 1). And therefore he exhorts 
the faithful “ not to be more wise than it behovetli to 
be wise, but to be wise unto sobriety” (Bom. xii. 3). 
And the Preacher says: “ Be not more wise than 
is necessary, lest thou become stupid” (Eccles. vii. 
17). Let us therefore put off the full gratification 


Of the General Judgment. 165 

of our love of knowledge to that great day. Here 
all knowledge is after all but imperfect and one¬ 
sided; it is gained slowl} r and with much labor, 
the effort is wearisome to the spirit and its enjoy¬ 
ment likewise. There we shall in one moment 
and to our great joy and happiness see all things 
plainly and perfectly. And the more we have 
mortified ourselves here, and preserved the sim¬ 
plicity of our hearts, the clearer and more perfect 
and gratifying will knowledge be there, and many 
a simple-minded old woman will there have a 
clearer discernment than some subtle theologian, 
who. may have searched more diligently than she 
but who loved less. 


Seventh Bag. 


FIRST MEDITATION. 

OF THE TWO STANDARDS. 

“Labor as a good soldier of Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. ii. 3). 

First Point. 

Holy Scripture testifies in many places that this 
world, with all who dwell in it, is divided into two 
kingdoms which are in antagonism to each other. 
The king and leader of the one is Lucifer: Satan, 
the prince of darkness. His appearance is as ter¬ 
rible as it is loathsome, and, however dreadful our 
imagination may picture it, it will never reach 
the reality. Since his expulsion from heaven he 
bears the mark of eternal rejection, and his whole 
being expresses the madness of an impotent de¬ 
spair. Viler still is his character; he is filled 
with rage, malice, craftiness, and wickedness; there 
is no trace in him of any good quality; he is in¬ 
capable of pity or compassion or any noble feeling. 
He is only working death and destruction, and his 
sole aim and business is to ruin the souls of men 
and to make them as unhappy as he is himself. 

He is the leader of one of these kingdoms. 
But because he would have no following if he 
were to show himself in his true character, he 


167 


Of the Two Standards. 

resorts to deceit and falsehood, for he is the father 
of lies and a liar from the beginning, and all the 
weapons with which he fights are the weapons of 
falsehood and faithlessness. He denies himself 
and his own existence; he distorts and perverts all 
human conceptions: he calls unchastity, love or an 
attractive weakness; he calls unbelief, strength of 
mind; disobedience, independence; pride, proper 
self-respect, and so forth. The world and the flesh 
are the messengers which he sends before him to 
prepare his way by making tempting offers. In 
compact with these two wicked deceivers he seeks 
to delude men and to induce them to deny their 
true and rightful Lord and Maker and Redeemer by 
word or at least by deed, and to attach themselves 
and become the servants of him, their most danger¬ 
ous enemy. He promises in return to make them 
free and happy, to gratify all their desires and to 
satisfy them with earthly pleasures and joys. But 
as everything emanating from him is only false¬ 
hood and delusion, these promises are no less so, 
because true happiness and real joy are not to be 
found in his service. All that he is able to give 
are only drops of the honey of earthly delight, 
which even here are mixed with a much larger 
proportion of bitterness and vexation of spirit and 
disquietude of heart, and which will have to be paid 
for with eternal torments hereafter. This is the 
wages which he pays to his followers. “ The wages 
of sin is death” (Rom. vi. 23). 

With respect to the future, he comforts each one 
with such illusions as, considering his state of mind 


168 Seventh Day; First Meditation. 

and temperament, lie is most likely to accept. He 
tells some that there is no future life, that this life 
ends all; he tells others that all is uncertain, and 
that one ought not to sacrifice the enjoyments of 
an assured present to an uncertain future. He 
promises others that they shall pass from earthly 
to heavenly joys after having, at the very worst, 
passed through some stages of discipline, and that 
a loving Father dwells above who has no time to 
be so particular with regard to the weaknesses of 
His creatures. Others again are told that hell is 
only for robbers and murderers. As to the most ob¬ 
stinate, finally, whose faith he cannot succeed in un¬ 
dermining, he tries to lead them astray by creating 
in them a presumptuous trust in the divine mercy; 
he deprives them of the fear of sin and of God’s 
judgments; he persuades them to defer penance 
again and again until the heart becomes hardened 
in sin and cannot find the way back to God. No 
calling, no place, no consecration can restrain him 
from exercising his tempting artifices; indeed the 
holier a soul is the greater the snares he sets for it. 
It is in religious houses therefore, too, that he is 
busy and busier than anywhere else; here luke¬ 
warmness, self-will, vanity, and a worldly disposi¬ 
tion are the roads by which he finds access to 
hearts. For he knows well enough that light 
esteem for rules and for the principles of the saints 
lead gradually to a light esteem for vows and finally 
to contempt of God’s commandments. Never is his 
triumph greater than when he succeeds in bringing 
a soul consecrated to God into bondage to himself. 


Of the Two Standards. 


169 


Second Point. 

The king and leader of the other kingdom is 
Onr Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. His form is 
sweet and lovely beyond expression, for He is the 
altogether lovely one among mankind, and sweetness 
flows from His lips. His face is the reflection of 
eternal light; His heart the sanctuary of all virtues, 
an abyss of love, an ever-flowing spring of grace 
and mercy. Grace and Truth are the messengers 
He sends forth to woo the hearts of men to Himself. 
He is most just iu His demands, most faithful in 
His promises, most kind and generous in His re¬ 
wards. He demands of those who desire to join 
His banner that they should love Him with their 
whole hearts, that they should renounce Satan, the 
world, and all the sinful lusts of the flesh, and for 
their own good fight incessantly against His and 
their own enemies. “And they that are Christ’s 
have crucified their flesh with the vices and concu¬ 
piscences” (Gal. v. 24). But this conflict is only to 
last a short time and is to be followed by an eternal 
unspeakable reicard , by a joy and glory that shall 
have no end; indeed all who overcome shall be 
made kings. “To him that shall overcome, 
I will give to sit with Me in My throne, as I 
also have overcome, and am set down with My 
Father in His throne” (Apoc. iii. 21). It is His 
own example that shall encourage those who are 
His in this conflict. He has Himself suffered and 
contended against anything they now have to suffer 
and contend against. He was “ one tempted in all 


170 Seventh Day : First Meditation. 

tilings sncli as we are, without sin” (Heb. iv. 15). 
Do His soldiers now suffer hunger and thirst? 
Pie languished on the cross, and His drink was 
vinegar and gall. Have they now to go without 
rest and comfort? He had not where to lay His 
head. Are they now despised, persecuted, and 
reviled? He endured the extremes of shame 
and dishonor. Are they beaten, ill-treated, and 
wounded? He poured out His blood to the last 
drop from a thousand wounds. He provides each 
of His soldiers with good and trusty weapons, with 
the girdle of truth, with the armor of justice, with 
the helmet of salvation, with the sword of the 
spirit, with the shield of faith, wherewith they are 
able to quench all the fiery darts of their enemies. 
His eye is in every place watchful lest one of His 
fighters should find himself in an unequal conflict; 
and when He sees one in danger, He comes Him¬ 
self to the rescue to protect him with His shield. 
And His help never fails; His protection is certain 
to prevail, His shield is impenetrable. And if He 
is most kind and tender-hearted, He is at the same 
time most mighty and terrible in battle, and on His 
garment and on His thigh is written: “ King of 
kings and Lord of lords. And His eyes are as a 
flame of fire, and out of His mouth proceedetli a 
sharp two-edged sword that with it He may strike 
the nations” (Apoc. xix. 16, 12, 15). His name 
alone sends His enemies to flight, because it is a 
name at which every knee shall bow in heaven and 
on earth and under the earth. Like a father He 
also provides for the necessary wants of His own. 


171 


Of the Tivo Standards. 

He knows each one’s need, and is any one exhausted 
from the labor of the conflict or weakened by the 
painful wounds which the malice of his enemies 
have inflicted, it is again He Himself who tends 
and nurses the weary one, who pours oil into his 
wounds and tenderly binds them up. “ Come to 
Me,” He exclaims, “ all you that labor and are bur¬ 
dened, and I will refresh you” (Matt. xi. 28). 

And this heavenly King and Leader is most 
generous and most faithful to His own in all 
His promises; indeed He gives them infinitely 
more than they have a right to expect. Satan 
promises his followers temporal happiness and 
a life of enjoyment and pleasure; but he is a liar 
and does not keep his promises. Christ the 
Lord urges all to ceaseless conflict, to cross and 
suffering during this life that they may thus obtain 
eternal glory as their prize. “ I come not to send 
peace, but the sword” (Matt. x. 34). “If any man 
will come after Me, let him deny himself and take 
up his cross daily and follow Me” (Luke ix. 23). 
Nevertheless He gives already here peace and joy 
in the Holy Ghost as temporal reward, and with it 
all true joy that can be ours in this vale of tears. 
“ But now being made free from sin and become 
servants to God, you have your fruit unto sanctifi¬ 
cation, and the end life everlasting” (Rom. vi. 22). 

Third Point. 

We shall therefore, each of us, have to decide 
either in favor of Christ or in favor of Satan. None 
can remain neutral and look on at the great conflict 


172 Seventh Day; First Meditation. 

without taking part one way or the other. “He 
that is not with Me is against Me,” exclaims Our 
Lord in the Gospel; “ and he that gatlieretli not 
with Me, scattereth” (Luke xi. 23). He therefore 
who is not with Christ, who does not follow in His 
footsteps, keep His commandments, fight for His 
kingdom, contend for His honor, is not a child of 
the light, but is with Satan, a vassal and slave of the 
devil, a child of darkness, however much he may 
protest that he will have nothing to do with Satan 
and his party. “We have one Father, even God,” 
the Jews said to Our Lord, and Jesus answered 
them: “ If God were your Father you would indeed 
love Me. You are of your father the devil, and the 
desires of your father you will do” (John viii. 41, 
42, 44). So far as we, who are here assembled, are 
concerned, we have already solemnly and publicly 
declared in favor of Jesus Christ, we have put on 
His uniform and His badge, so that every one can 
see from our outward appearance to which party 
we belong. But our calling demands that we 
should fight not merely as ordinary soldiers, but as 
leaders and captains, and in the very front ranks, 
and to carry forward the victorious banner of Our 
Lord Jesus Christ: that by our doctrines, our vir¬ 
tues, and our example we should incite the Chris¬ 
tian world to fight the battles of the Lord. And as 
members of the Congregation of the Most Holy Re¬ 
deemer, as apostolic laborers and missionaries, it 
is our very special business to destroy the kingdom 
of Satan and in all places to build up, to maintain, 
and to strengthen the kingdom of God. But we 


173 


Of the Two Standards . 

shall achieve nothing in the world if we have not 
first conquered ourselves, gained the victory in our 
own hearts, and firmly established in them the 
kingdom of Jesus Christ. 

Let us, then, first of all determine upon this con¬ 
flict with ourselves and with the Satan of our inner 
life, so that through constant victories we may in¬ 
crease more and more in spiritual strength, in all 
virtue and perfectness, and thus become more use¬ 
ful in our special calling and more worthy to be 
chosen weapons in the hands of the Lord. Peace 
without conflict, joy without longing, love without 
pain are reserved for the other world; here in this 
world is the time of probation, where love is at¬ 
tended by pain, where joy is found in hope, and 
where we have to strive after peace by daily and 
unceasing conflict. Every day on awaking, as the 
author of “ The Spiritual Combat” says very beauti¬ 
fully, we must imagine that we are in a camp 
closely surrounded by enemies, where the unalter¬ 
able order is given either to fight or to lose our life. 
We are daily in danger of losing our salvation; but 
every day crowns of victory too are held out to us; 
let us strive to gain possession of them. But we 
shall never possess them unless we continue to 
fight bravely and manfully. We shall attain to no 
real virtue without much praying and longing and 
many little acts of victory over self. Let us see 
that we do not grow weary too soon and indulge in 
an indolent rest. Let us recall to our minds the 
lieart-stirring words which the Apostle addresses 
to the Hebrews, and which are so well adapted to 


174 Seventh Day : Second Meditation. 

this meditation: “Let us run by patience to the 
fight proposed to us: Looking on Jesus the Author 
and Finisher of faith, who having joy set before 
Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and 
now sittetli on the right hand of the throne of God. 
For think diligently upon Him that endured such 
opposition from sinners against Himself: that you 
be not wearied, fainting in your minds. For you 
have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against 
sin” (Heb. xii. 1-4). 

SECOND MEDITATION. 

OF LUKEWARMNESS. 

“ How long do you halt between two sides? If the Lord be 
God, follow Him; but if Baal, then follow him” (3 Kings 
xviii. 21). 

First Point. 

Although Our Saviour declares very plainly and 
distinctly in many passages of Holy Scripture that 
no one can remain neutral in the great conflict, 
that he that is not with Him is against Him', and 
that no man can serve Him and at the same time 
the world, there are nevertheless Christians who 
attempt to occupy such a medium position. There 
are those cowardly and indifferent souls who hesi¬ 
tate to break entirely with their Saviour and to fall 
away from Him by grievous sin, but who, on the 
other hand, cannot make up their minds to strive 
as Christ would have His own to strive, who will 
put no serious restraint irpon themselves, who love 
a comfortable and effeminate life, and who desire 


Of Lukewarmness. 


175 


to enjoy as much of the world and its pleasures as 
may be enjoyed without a manifest breach of faith. 
But we know from what Christ says in the Apoca¬ 
lypse to the Bishop of Laodicea in what light he 
regards such disciples: “ I know thy works, that 
thou art neither cold nor hot. I would thou wert 
cold or hot. But because thou art lukewarm and 
neither cold nor hot, I will begin to vomit thee out 
of my mouth” (Apoc. iii. 15, 16). To the Bishop 
of Ephesus He says in the same book: “ And thou 
hast patience and hast endured for My name and 
hast not fainted. But I have somewhat against 
thee, because thou hast left thy first charity. Be 
mindful, therefore, from whence thou art fallen: 
and do penance and do the first works. Or else I 
come to thee, and will move thy candlestick out of 
its place, except thou do penance” (Apoc. ii. 3-5). 
Our Lord hates lukewarmness then in any soul, but 
more particularly in those souls who have conse¬ 
crated themselves in a special way to His service. 
A religious is by virtue of his vows under an obli¬ 
gation to strive after perfection; he is very specially 
chosen, and has grace given him for this end; he 
has greater means of sanctification at his disposal 
than others. If, notwithstanding this, he lives a 
careless life, he is like a faithless bride upon whom 
the bridegroom bestows caresses and presents in 
order to remind her of his love and to whom he 
offers his heart and everything he possesses, but 
who basely and coldly repels'him, dismisses him 
with idle words and empty promises, and bestows 
all her affection upon others. Can it be wondered 


17() Seventh Day; Second Meditation. 

at that the bridegroom is more pained by such 
ingratitude than by the grossest insults at the hands 
of his declared enemies, and that, weary of such un¬ 
worthy treatment, he finally altogether withdraws 
his love and grace from his faithless bride? 

We read in the life of Blessed Margaret Alacoque 
that several of the Sisters walked on this broad 
road of lukewarmness. They were not guilty of 
any great sin, their manner of life still appeared 
edifying to the world; but they were careless in 
the observance of rule in small things, they thought 
nothing of little faults, they gave themselves up to 
their inclinations and attachments without serious 
resistance. And the Lord therefore spoke of them 
those terrible words: “ I will separate them from 
my true and well-beloved brides, and when they 
are separated I will surround them with the same 
blindness which stands between the sinner and My 
mercy; thus closed in their conscience will be with¬ 
out reproof, their discernment without light, their 
heart without repentance, and they will finally die 
in their blindness.” * 


Second Point. 

But just as a lukewarm religious incurs the dis¬ 
pleasure of God in a much greater degree, he 
places himself by his lukewarmness in a far more 
dangerous position than any one else. The cause 
of this lies in the fact that in the case of a religious 
the mischief is not due to his having failed to use 
the most powerful means of grace, but to his having 
* See Life of Blessed Margaret respecting this passage. 


177 


Of Lukewarmness. 

misused them, and evils of this kind, in matters of 
the body as well as of the soul, are most difficult to 
cure. If a lukewarm soul, moreover, suddenly 
commit a mortal sin, it may come to pass that she 
becomes alarmed and humiliated thereby, and that 
her eyes being opened she realizes her misery and 
peril and applies herself most earnestly to a life of 
greater zeal. But in the case of the religious, the 
passing from warmth to lukewarmness and from 
lukewarmness to coldness occurs imperceptibly. 
By the gradual withdrawal of the light they get so 
used to the darkness that they finally find them¬ 
selves in complete darkness without feeling in any 
way alarmed. Their discernment is without light, 
as Our Lord said to Blessed Margaret; for the 
sources of their illumination are dried up. They 
listen daily to the verities of the faith, but in a way 
as though they heard them not and were not moved 
and quickened by them. The indifferent spirit in 
which they have been in the habit of practising 
their spiritual exercises has long since blunted 
their susceptibilities. Their conscience is without 
reproach, for they have long since formed a con¬ 
science for themselves; they have made up their 
minds as to their principles, and ultimately deal 
with the commandments of God as they have dealt 
with the rules and principles of the saints. Their 
heart is without repentance; for where the spiri¬ 
tual perception is darkened and the conscience is 
asleep, where there is neither a wholesome fear of 
God nor a true love to Jesus Christ, how can there 
be repentance? And so they gradually die, in 


178 Seventh Day; Second Meditation. 

their blindness because they have exhausted all the 
spiritual means of grace, and there is no ointment 
to restore sight to their eyes or plaster to soften the 
hardness of their hearts and which could work in 
them a sincere conversion and penance. “It is 
impossible, therefore,” says St. Paul, in order to 
mark the exceptional character of these cases—“it 
is impossible for those who were once illuminated, 
have tasted also the heavenly gift, and were made 
partakers of the Holy Ghost; have moreover tasted 
the good word of God and the powers of the world 
to come and are fallen away, to be renewed again 
to penance, crucifying again to themselves the Son 
of God and making Him a mockery” (Heb. vi. 4-6). 

We should all be on our guard, therefore, and not 
say to ourselves by any chance: Even though I am 
not as zealous as I ought to be, I know up to what 
limit or point I may go. When I come to it I shall 
know how to stop. Any one judging in this way 
may easily make a mistake, and he is in any case 
playing a dangerous game; for one may still be 
able to discern things at a given time which one is 
no longer able to discern a little later on, because 
the light of faith has become dimmer and the voice 
of conscience less distinct. It might therefore 
happen to such a one that he pass the set limit 
without observing it, or that he pass it in spite of 
his vigilance, because the force of habit and pas¬ 
sion grown up within him are sweeping him away. 
Thus it is that a drunkard always determines not 
to become intoxicated, but to drink in moderation 
and to leave off as soon as he notices that he has 


179 


Of Lukewarmness. 

liad enough. But he becomes drunk nevertheless, 
because so long as doubt is possible he is always 
in doubt whether he has reached that point, and 
when there is no longer room for doubt, he has lost 
the power of exercising the necessary self-control. 
In the same way a man running down a steep hill 
cannot halt all at once at a particular time or 
spot, but going at full speed his own weight carries 
him downward, he is seized with giddiness, and 
only comes to a standstill when he has already ar¬ 
rived at the bottom. It is therefore safest not to 
taste the intoxicating drink of lukewarmness at all, 
not even to drink of it in moderation, but to abstain 
from it altogether. It is safest never deliberately 
to run downhill, but ever to be striving upward and 
to climb up the hill of perfection with ceaseless 
effort. 

But perhaps the lukewarm religious has at least 
some advantage in the way of temporal things. 
Perhaps he lives a more pleasant, a more quiet and 
contented life than others, who are earnestly striv¬ 
ing after perfection? Nothing of the sort! In 
this point too he is at a disadvantage and is miser¬ 
ably checked in his expectations. From the world 
he has once for all separated himself; he has once 
for all parted with that most precious of man’s pos¬ 
sessions, his liberty. He is not permitted to enjoy 
earthly pleasure as men of the world may; he can 
only at the best seize some miserable fragment of 
it here and there. From God he has still fewer 
consolations to expect, and thus he lives as it were 
between heaven and earth, neither blessed with the 


180 Seventh Day; Second Meditation . 

dew of heaven nor with the fat of the earth. His 
unsatisfied lusts are a torment to him, his vain 
imagination disquiets him, his incessant tempta¬ 
tions fatigue him, and disgust and weariness con¬ 
sume him; in short, he has here already a temporal 
hell, and if he does not at the right time stop on the 
way of destruction, an eternal hell is awaiting him. 

Tim'd, Point. 

The lukewarm religious finally does not only do 
harm to himself but to all his brethren and to the 
entire congregation in which he is living. If some 
lukewarm and undesirable members had not set a 
bad example and had not led some weaker one, 
who did not stand firm enough, astray, laxness of 
discipline could not have crept into so many relig¬ 
ious orders which were at one time iu a flourish¬ 
ing condition. Example, for good or evil, exercises 
a unique power over the human heart; the evil ex¬ 
ample indeed infinitely more so, since the corrupt 
nature of man is always more prone to evil. One 
here or there transgresses a rule with his eyes 
open, acts deceitfully toward his superior, takes 
certain liberties, speaks lightly of the rules of the 
spiritual life; others observe it, and if they do not 
at once and with all their might contend against the 
tempting impression created, they too will soon be 
shaken in their principles, their consciences will 
become blunt, or they will part with their scruples 
and will finally do what they have seen others 
do. Many a religious who has forfeited his vo¬ 
cation and with it his eternal salvation was per- 


181 


Of Lukewarmness. 

liaps in tlie first instance led to depart from the 
path of the observance of rule and perfection by 
the angry remarks or the example of a brother, and 
will most certainly one day before the judgment 
seat of God accuse him who gave the first occasion 
for his fall. 

Let us take heed then lest we set a bad example; 
but let us also take heed lest we follow a had example. 
“ Woe to the world because of scandals,” says Our 
Lord, “for it must needs be that scandals come, 
but nevertheless woe to the man by whom the 
scandal cometli” (Matt, xviii. 7). And not only in 
the world but in religious congregations too offences 
must come, and woe uj)on woe to him who causes 
offence in the house of the Lord. It will be no ex¬ 
cuse before God that the bad example of others has 
led him astray; for not this man or that one is our 
model, whom we are to imitate and in whose foot¬ 
steps we are to tread, but Jesus Christ; not the 
action of this or that man, but the gospels and our 
rule are the laws set before us. It is not accord¬ 
ing to the views of this man or that one that we 
are to shape our opinions, but according to the 
principles and rules of the saints. 

But if all this be so, the question might arise in 
some heart: If the demands made in the religious 
life be so great, and every neglect be so severely 
punished; if lukewarmness exposes one to such 
greater danger there than in the world; if there 
awaits the religious a severer judgment than a per¬ 
son in the world, would it not in the end have been 
better to have remained in the world and to have 


182 Seventh Day; Second Meditation. 

worked out one’s salvation there to the best of one’s 
power? But such a question might easily be an¬ 
swered by other questions. Dare we reproach God 
because of His goodness to us ? May our eye be 
evil because He is good ? May we remonstrate 
with Him because, although He has considered us 
more than others, has loved us and overwhelmed 
us with graces, we do not care to make use of them? 
May the inhabitants of Bethsaida and Capliarnaum 
accuse Our Lord, because He worked so many 
signs and wonders among them? May perhaps 
Judas in hell say to his divine Master: “ Why 
didst Thou call me to be an apostle? Hadst Thou 
not called me, I might perhaps have been saved. ” 
No one will deny that it would be both foolish and 
impious to answer such questions in the affirma- 
. tive. The graces which God imparts to us can 
never become the cause of our destruction, because 
God imparts them to us not as a mere empty form, 
but as a reali ty and with the earnest desire that they 
should insure our salvation. Many of those whom 
God calls to the religious life and who w T ould not 
have been saved in the world are saved by their re¬ 
ligious calling. Many who would only have lived 
an ordinary life in the world became perfect in the 
religious state. None of those who perish in it 
would have been saved in the world. For how 
could those who do not make use of the many and 
great graces of the religious state, and who, pro¬ 
tected from so many temptations to sin and sur¬ 
rounded by so many incitements to good, do not 
work out their salvation—how could they have 


183 


Of the Lost Son. 

worked out their salvation in the world where 
there are so many more dangers but so much fewer 
graces and helps ? Away then with such false 
sophisms, which only serve to deprive the power¬ 
ful impulse to a zealous life of its force. Let us 
rather do the one thing needful: form a firm de¬ 
termination to shake off all lukewarmness and 
bravely strive after that perfection according to our 
state in which we have the only guaranty of our 
eternal salvation. 

THIRD MEDITATION. 

OF THE LOST SON. 

“Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the 
day of salvation” (2 Cor. vi. 2). 

First Point. 

As we have hitherto chiefly considered the sever¬ 
ity of the divine justice, we should now contem¬ 
plate the mysteries of divine love and the greatness 
of its mercies. A connecting link is supplied in 
the thought of God’s goodness and mercy towards 
sinners who have made up their minds to return to 
Him. We need not look for proofs and references 
respecting this comforting truth. We need but 
think of that beautiful parable of our divine 
Master in which He has illustrated it in the person 
of the lost son. The parable is, as we know, 
divided into .two parts. The misery which the lost 
son had to endure after he had left his father and 
wasted his substance forms the first part; his re- 


184 Seventh Day; Third Meditation. 

turn to his father’s house and the great joy his 
father felt, the second part. A son then receives 
his portion from his father; he goes into a far coun¬ 
try, wastes all his goods, and is at last in such 
need that he hires himself out to feed the swine. 
He wants to satisfy his hunger with the husks 
which the swine eat, but as there is great famine 
in the land he cannot obtain sufficient even of these 
and very nearly perishes of hunger. Let us now 
apply this to ourselves. We too received an am¬ 
ple portion when we entered the congregation and 
took our vows: the abundant portion of particular 
graces, illuminations, helps, and inducements to 
perfection of every kind. But how have we used 
these possessions ? What treasures of holiness 
have we gathered with them? Must we not ac¬ 
knowledge that we have wasted them and that we 
have dealt with these precious gifts as though they 
were the meanest and most contemptible things in 
the world ? And because we have wasted the goods 
of grace we received and have thus failed to become 
worthy of others, we have at last come to be in 
need. The daily bread of zeal and love to God 
has come to an end; inward consolations, spiritual 
joys, the peace of the heart were forfeited, and be¬ 
cause we must have some sort of joy, we have 
looked for the husks, i.e., for miserable sensual 
consolations; we have sought them in eating and 
drinking, in frivolities and earthly attachments, in 
talk and vanities of every kind. But this miserable 
fare-has not satisfied our hunger, because it cannot 
satisfy any one and least of all those who were used 


185 


Of the Lost Son. 

to the most select and delicious food. And thus 
our misery has increased more and more, and we 
have come to be in danger of perishing of hunger. 
Or is this comparison exaggerated? Let each settle 
that with his own conscience; but let him not only 
consider the state of things as it now is, but as it 
will be shortly, unless a change be effected wdiile 
there is still time. “ He that is loose and slack in 
his work, is the brother of him that wasteth his 
own works,” says the Book of Proverbs (xviii. 9). 
Flesh and spirit are two opposing forces: that 
which renders the one strong renders the other 
weak; that which nourishes the one destroys the 
other. Since the fall our entire nature is corrupt 
in its very root, and ever tends downward. The 
spirit aided by grace must constantly pull it up 
and raise it from the dust; if he cease in this effort 
there is no standing still, but a gradual sinking 
lower and lower. Just as a stone hurled in the air 
only continues its upward course so long as the 
force with which it was hurled continues, but after¬ 
wards rapidly falls to the ground by reason of its 
weight and the earth’s attraction, so the natural 
man, as soon as the impulse of the spirit ceases, 
falls back more deeply and rapidly into the earthly 
and sensual. 

Second Point. 

Let us now pass on to the second part. The lost 
son takes counsel with himself; he makes up his 
mind to return to his father. He at once arises, 
and when he comes to his father he casts himself 
at his feet and says: “ Father, I have sinned against 


180 Seventh Day; Third Meditation. 

heaven and before tliee, I am not now worthy to be 
called thy son.” But the father raises him up, 
clasps him to his breast, puts a ring on his finger 
and prepares a joyous feast; “because,” he says in 
the joy of his heart, “this my son was dead and is 
come to life again, was lost and is found” (Luke 
xv. 21, 24). 

What better thing can we do than to follow in 
this the example of the lost son ? Behold, now is 
the acceptable time, now is the day of salvation! 
The doors of grace are still open to us. We still 
possess the great grace of our vocation, the corner¬ 
stone of our election, and with it the confident hope 
that we have not as yet missed the season of mercy. 
With this one grace we can regain everything, and 
much more even than we formerly possessed. Let 
us then cast ourselves at the feet of our heavenly 
Father, and let us all say with a contrite heart: I 
am not worthy to be Thy son, Thy chosen child, to 
bear the name of the Most Holy Redeemer and to 
be called a disciple of St. Alphonsus. Then let us 
with firm resolutions arise from the dust and dirt 
of our spiritual neediness, let us leave the husks 
and stretch forth our hands after the wholesome 
and nourishing food of prayer and mortification, 
and we shall soon recover our strength and possess 
the favor of our heavenly Father in a higher degree 
than we did before. 

In leading us to a humble recognition of our 
miserable state He has already put the ring, the 
pledge of fatherly love and grace, on our finger. 
For the vivid conviction that we are really in need 


187 


Of (he Lost Son. 

of grace and mercy and of inward renewal is the 
lirst and necessary condition of this renewal. 
Those whose hearts are proud and unbending and 
who say to themselves: What is the use of all this ? 
What is there so dreadful in what I have done ? 
What is there so blameworthy in my behavior ? 
Have not others done much worse things? Have 
not many things with them been permitted and 
overlooked ? May one not do many things in 
obedience to some moral principle without break¬ 
ing one’s vows ?—those who think thus are still 
feeding at the swine trough, although they know it 
not. The real Pharisee is he who knows of noth¬ 
ing in himself that might be imj)roved, and who 
only thanks God that He is not like others: a rob¬ 
ber, unjust, or an adulterer. And such a one would 
go away from these spiritual exercises no more 
cleansed and renewed than the Pharisee went away 
justified out of the temple. Far better is it to take 
up the position of the publican, to beat one’s breast 
and exclaim with a contrite heart: God be merciful 
to me a sinner! Such a one will, like the sinner 
in the Gospel, obtain grace and favor. 

The saints believed themselves to be really the 
vilest of men, for they possessed a much truer self- 
knowledge and a much more tender conscience; a 
single fault or an imperfection did not so easily 
escape their watchful notice, and the most insignifi¬ 
cant fault did not seem insignificant to them be¬ 
cause they wkre vividly imbued with the infinite 
holiness and loving kindness of God and their own 
never-ceasing duty to serve Him. They always 


188 Seventh Day; Third Meditation. 

remembered the evil they might have done had not 
the grace of God preserved them from it, and of 
what they might be capable if His grace left them 
for a single moment. They also recognized much 
more clearly the imperfections of their good works, 
and considered how much more loyally they might 
have responded to His illuminations and the im¬ 
pulses of His grace, and what others would have 
been and done, and what virtues they would have 
possessed if they had received the same graces. 
They finally always had that passage of the Gospel 
before their eyes: “ When you shall have done all 
these things that are commanded you, say : We are 
unprofitable servants; we have done that which we 
ought to do” (Luke xvii. 10). We have no need to 
go so far as that; we need but examine our works 
as they really are and we shall find ample reason 
for humbling ourselves before God and men. 

Third Point. 

“ I say to you that even so there shall be joy in 
heaven upon one sinner that doth penance more 
than upon ninety-nine just who need not penance” 
(Luke xv. 7). From this declaration it would ap¬ 
pear that there is more joy in heaven when a sinner 
returns to a state of grace than when one who is 
justified is converted to a state of zeal. But, ac¬ 
cording to the interpreters of Holy Scripture, Our 
Lord is here speaking in the language of man, in 
order to make us better realize the greatness of the 
joy and because we are apt to forget everything 
else when some good fortune befalls us. Equally 


189 


Of the Lost Son. 

great, indeed much greater, is the joy of the holy 
angels, and of all the inhabitants of heaven, when 
a hitherto lukewarm soul resolves to walk from 
henceforth in the way of perfection. For in the 
first place a perfect soul is in itself dearer and 
more precious to God than many imperfect ones, 
because He is more honored, loved, and glorified 
by her than by many hundreds who are walking 
the common way. A holy soul, moreover, never 
attains merely her own blessedness; for out of love 
to her God also extends His grace and mercy to 
other souls who would otherwise have fallen under 
His judgment. When, therefore, the elect bride 
enters in to partake of the heavenly supper, she 
is always accompanied by a train of many other 
souls whose salvation she has worked and who 
have been given to her by her heavenly Bridegroom 
as a reward for her faithfulness. Of the bride it is 
written in the Forty-fourth Psalm (15—17) : “ After 
her shall virgins be brought to the king: her 
neighbors shall be brought to thee. They shall be 
brought with gladness and rejoicing. They shall 
be brought into the temple of the king. Instead of 
thy fathers, sons are born to thee: thou shalt make 
them princes over all the earth.” 

In the contemplative life, too, a perfect soul may, 
as we know from the lives of many holy nuns, ob¬ 
tain the grace of conversion for many sinners by 
her prayers and works of penance. How much 
more w r ill those obtain it who are called to the ac¬ 
tive life and who walk perfectly in this calling ? 
The more acceptable an apostolic worker is to Our 


190 Seventh Day; Third Meditation. 

Lord, the more richly his soul is adorned with 
virtues pleasing unto God, the more interior his 
interior life is, the more he draws down the divine 
blessing upon his labors by virtue of his prayers, 
his mortifications, and inward sacrifices, the more 
blessed and the richer in fruit will his labors be. 
Where ordinary laborers scarcely gather together 
a few sheaves throughout the day’s work of life, 
saintly workers fill entire barns with the harvest 
of the Lord. The salvation of many then depends 
upon our present resolution to become holy. 
Many will be converted to God if we are converted 
to a life of perfection. Many will be moved and 
roused and set on fire if our words come from a 
heart wholly inflamed by the love of God. Many 
will be changed by our example alone and by our 
very look if it be illuminated by the lustre of real 
virtue. 

And let us finally consider how easy this matter 
of conversion is for us. If any one who lives 
and has hitherto lived in the world wishes to begin 
serving God, what preparation, what struggles 
and sacrifices are not frequently involved! He 
has first of all to make satisfaction for his former 
sins, to sever the ties of friendship or family, and to 
change his entire mode of life. He has to expose 
himself to the scorn of his friends and associates. 
He must be prepared for many a trying acknowl¬ 
edgment of his change of mind, many a hurtful 
slight, many a -xlisadvantage in his temporal 
affairs: in short, he finds nothing but contradic¬ 
tion, difficulties, and opposition. We experience 


191 


Of the Lost Son. 

nothing of all this when we commence a new and 
more zealous life. We neither expose ourselves to 
persecution, nor have we to make any trying confes¬ 
sion, nor need we change anything in our circum¬ 
stances, nor do we meet with any hindrances from 
without. We have no other hindrances to fight 
against but those coming from within ourselves, and 
which our sensual nature and our evil habits and 
inclinations place in our way. Our external cir¬ 
cumstances, on the contrary, afford us every pos¬ 
sible help and facility for carrying out our resolu¬ 
tions. Even in our spiritual exercises not much 
requires altering, and there is no need to devise 
new and exceptional methods. The chief thing is 
that we should now do with fervor and love and zeal 
what w r e formerly did without spirit and coldly and 
negligently. There is, therefore, no other prep¬ 
aration required of us than to exclaim with David: 
“ And I said, Now have I begun: this is the change 
of the right hand of the Most High” (Ps. lxxvi. 11). 
Why delayest thou? says St. John of the Cross in 
his spiritual maxims, thou mayst at this moment 
love God from the heart. 


Eigbtb IDav?. 


FIRST MEDITATION. 

OF THE INCARNATION OF JESUS CHRIST, 
“Arid the Word was made flesh” (John i. 14). 

First Point. 

If it were a question of selecting one of tlie mys¬ 
teries of divine love which embodies all the others 
and out of which they have all unfolded themselves, 
we could only fix upon the mystery of the Incarna¬ 
tion. Everything great, stupendous, and incom¬ 
prehensible that divine love has worked in time is 
contained in the few words: “ Et verbum caro fac¬ 
tum est ”—“And the Word was made flesh.” The 
Word, the eternal, only-begotten Son of God, had 
clothed Himself with our flesh, our weakness, ap¬ 
peared as man here on earth and walked among us 
as one of ourselves. He “emptied Himself, taking 
the form of a servant, being made in the likeness 
of men, and in habit found as a man” (Phil. ii. 7). 
And this He did for His creatures, and not for in¬ 
nocent creatures who loved Him and who were 
devoted to Him, and who had perhaps brought 
great misery upon themselves without their own 
fault, but for vicious rebels and faithless traitors 


Of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. 193 

in order to deliver them from tlie punishment they 
deserve. 

“ In which also we all conversed in time past in 
the desires of our flesh, fulfilling the will of the 
flesh and of our thoughts, and were by nature chil¬ 
dren of wrath, even as the rest: But God (who is 
rich in mercy) for His exceeding charity where¬ 
with He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, 
hath quickened us together in Christ” (Ephes. ii. 
3-5). God has loved us then from all eternity, and 
even when there was nothing lovable remaining in 
us, when by sin we had torn the bond of friend¬ 
ship, had effaced the divine image from our 
hearts, and had become the children of wrath, 
worthy of abhorrence and condemnation. Indeed, 
it was then that He loved us most and that He 
gave us the greatest proof of His love, since He 
sent the God-Man into the world for our redemp¬ 
tion. What human heart would imagine such a 
wonder of Divine Omnipotence and love, what 
human mind would venture to conceive it, had 
not God Himself revealed it ? 

"That which was from the beginning,” says St. 
John, in announcing this unheard-of wonder, 
" which we have heard, which we have seen with 
our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our 
hands have handled, of the word of life: For the 
life was manifested, and we have seen, and do bear 
witness, and declare unto you the life eternal which 
was with the Father, and hath appeared to us” (1 
John i. 1, 2). Let us imagine we had never had 
any accurate knowledge of the Christian faith and 


194 


Eighth Day; First Meditation. 

were only to be instructed in it now. Our teachers 
would begin with tlie creation and tell us how wan¬ 
tonly our first parents transgressed the command¬ 
ment of God, how Divine Justice demanded that 
the offenders should be punished with eternal 
death; *but how mercy conquered justice and the 
Lord had compassion on sinful man. We would 
further be told what means eternal love devised in 
order to reconcile mercy with offended justice; 
that an innocent person sacrificed Himself for the 
sin of the human race and suffered its punishment. 
Finally we would also be told who it was that 
offered - this great sacrifice for sin; no merely just 
and holy person, no prophet sanctified from his 
mother’s womb, none of the heavenly host, no 
angel or archangel, but the Son of God Himself 
reigning with the Father and the Holy Ghost, one 
God from all eternity. What amazement, what 
holy enthusiasm, what feelings of gratitude, of love, 
and of adoration would not seize us? But is this 
great mystery to make no longer an inqiression 
upon us because we have known it and been famil¬ 
iar with it from our youth up? Have the words 
Et verhum caro factum est lost something of their 
significance because we hear and pronounce them 
every day? 

Second Point. 

Wien we now come to consider these mysteries 
of love, much becomes clear to us that would other¬ 
wise remain dark, many difficulties melt away, 
many anxious doubts vanish. We understand now 
why the damned will have to suffer eternally; for 


Of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. 195 

if the love of God is so great and immeasurable 
that He became one of us and in tlie form of man 
suffered death for our sake, there must be a justice 
corresponding to this love, there must be eternal 
punishment for those who reject such love, who 
despise such grace, and who thrust such sacrifice 
from them. God would otherwise cease to be an 
infinitely perfect God; His love would be no longer 
love, but weakness. “ A man making void the law 
of Moses,” says St. Paul to the Hebrews, “dietli 
without any mercy under two or three witnesses. 
How much more, do you think, he deserveth worse 
punishments, who hath trodden under foot the Son 
of God, and hath esteemed the blood of the testa¬ 
ment unclean, by which he was sanctified and hath 
offered an affront to the Spirit of grace? For we 
know him that hath said: Vengeance belongeth to 
Me, and I will repay ” (Heb. x. 28-30). But this 
vengeance only falls upon those who do not love. 
This is the only thing which God demands of us: 
that we should love Him who Himself is love, and 
give our whole heart to Him who has first given 
Himself wholly to us. It was for dliis reason 
alone that Jesus Christ became man, in order that 
He might restore the bond of love between God 
and man, and that man should again become a child 
of God and a fellow-heir with Christ, clinging with 
childlike love to his Creator, being happy in this 
love in time and eternity. 

Those who have earnestly brought home to them¬ 
selves the succession of terrible truths to which we 
have so far directed our minds must necessarily 


196 Eighth Bay; First Meditation. 

experience a certain feeling of uneasiness. The 
majesty of a most holy God, the severity of a most 
just God, the terrors of His judgment surround us 
on every side; there is no other choice or way of 
escape before them, but to begin a perfect life with 
all earnestness, or to expose themselves to the perils 
of eternal damnation; and they ask themselves 
with an anxious heart: Shall I be able to stand the 
test of such a severe judgment where the righteous 
will scarcely be saved ? Shall I reach a goal which 
is fixed so high ? Shall I not miss it like so very 
many others ? To this anxious question an assur¬ 
ing answer has already been given as the mysteries 
of divine love have been unfolded before our eyes. 
It is as follows: “Love God above all things and 
with all thy strength , love Him faithfully unto the 
end; for those who love God there is no hell.” If 
you ask further: How shall I attain to this love and 
continue in it ? How shall I attain to that perfec¬ 
tion which love demands ?—the Apostle answers : 
“ He that spared not even His own Son, but deliv¬ 
ered Him up for us all, how hath He not also, with. 
Him, given us all things?” (Rom. viii. 32). Is 
there a grace which is not contained in that son- 
ship which Jesus Christ has achieved for us ? Is 
there a good gift wdiich we cannot obtain from the 
Divine Goodness by virtue of His infinite merits ? 

The fear of the divine judgment is the scaffold¬ 
ing which a wise builder must erect in order to be 
able to work at the building of perfection; but 
when the walls have reached a certain height and 
the house is covered by a roof, the scaffolding is re- 


Of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. 197 

moved. In the same way slavish fear passes away 
as soon as the soul has reached the level of perfect 
love; for as St. John says: “ Fear is not in charity, 
but j)erfect charity casteth out fear” (1 John iv. 
18). There only remains then a childlike fear 
which is the foundation and also the wall, the germ 
and also the fruit, the mark and also the guardian 
of real love. For where there is love there must 
be hatred, hatred of that which is opposed to the 
nature of the Beloved: the hatred of sin. In the 
same way love must be accompanied by fear so 
long as she is not in a state of perfect safety, as 
long as the virtue of hope accompanies her; she 
must always be afraid lest she should lose the high¬ 
est and most desirable good; she must ever be 
anxious lest she should displease the Beloved in 
anything; she must ever be careful lest she should 
not always loyally respond to His love, and she 
must evermore tremble even at the very shadow of 
sin. And the fear of hell and judgment must 
never be entirely abolished even with the most 
saintly soul; the difference merely is that she no 
longer rules, but is subject and must serve love 
as a servant in order to guard the soul from sin at 
a time of great temptation, from the only evil of 
which she is afraid. “Times will come,” says St. 
Teresa, “ when even souls consecrated to God and 
entirely united to His will, who would rather suffer 
every torment and a manifold death than willingly 
to commit the smallest fault, are seized and op¬ 
pressed by such fierce temptations that in order 
not to yield to them they resort to those chief 


198 


Eighth Day: First Meditation. 

weapons of prayer: tlie consideration that all 
things pass away and that there is a heaven and 
a hell.” 

Third Point. 

But if Our Saviour’s love to us is so great, how 
great ought not to he the love which we should hear 
one toward another, since in Him ice are all members 
of one body ? As Jesus Christ loved us when we 
were yet sinners and His enemies, should we not 
love our neighbor, however much there may be in 
him that is displeasing and offensive to us; should 
we not bear his weaknesses with loving patience, 
should we not forgive him from the inmost depths 
of our hearts when he has hurt or offended us? 
“Put ye on, therefore, as the elect of God, holy 
and beloved, the bowels of mercy, benignity, hu¬ 
mility, modesty, patience: Bearing with one an¬ 
other, and forgiving one another, if any have a 
complaint against another. Even as the Lord hath 
forgiven you, so 3'ou also” (Colos. iii. 12, 13). 
How great especially should be our soul’s zeal! 
The redemjffion is a second creation; but it was a 
much greater and more difficult task than the first, 
for, as a holy father says, He who by one word 
created us out of nothing, had to do a work and 
suffer manjr things to renew us and to once more 
make us His own when by sin we had become lost 
to Him. Every soul is bought with a ransom 
which cannot be compared with anything in heaven 
or on earth, for what can there be more dear and 
precious in heaven or on earth than the blood of 
God made man ? If Jesus Christ then did not 


Of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. 199 

hesitate to do and work and sutler so much for each 
one of us, for even the very least of our fellow-men 
and to pay such a fearful price, shall we hesitate 
to do and suffer and surrender all things if thereby 
we are able to save a single soul from eternal 
misery? No one loving Jesus Christ in sincerity 
should dare to hesitate in such a case for a single 
moment, least of all we who have been specially 
called, and who are bound by our vows to give our¬ 
selves wholH for the salvation of souls most for¬ 
saken. Those, therefore, who remain indifferent 
when it is a question of winning souls bought with 
the blood of Jesus Christ, those who hold back 
from apostolic labors and who fear the self-denials, 
mortifications, and humiliations connected with 
them, and who consider their rest and comfort; 
those who are not ready to make every sacrifice 
and, in the words of our rule, surrender health and 
even life itself, are in a false position and should 
blush with shame whenever they speak of the 
Most Holy Redeemer. 

But however beautiful and necessary such zeal 
is, we must nevertheless take heed that it is so well 
regulated as really to bring forth those blessed 
fruits which God expects of us. The first great 
aim of our calling always remains our personal sanc¬ 
tification. Those, therefore, who would labor 
while neglecting their own spiritual progress, who 
think lightly of the observance of rule, of prayer, 
of spiritual exercises, and the interior life, will 
not only fail to save other souls, but will also 
lose their own, as is proved by so many sad ex- 


200 


Eighth Day; Second Meditation. 

amples. Those also work in vain who work oidside 
holy obedience, for liow could God’s blessing rest 
upon anything done contrary to His most holy 
will ? And even if He bestow any blessings, these 
would still only be for the benefit of others, while 
he who served as the instrument may be rejected. 
The most useless and corrupt laborer, finally, is he 
who seeks other things as well as the honor and 
approval of Almighty God, and who only labors in 
order to drive away the weariness of monotony or 
to give vent to his natural temperament or to make 
himself known and to earn honor and praise and 
approbation. Our rule calls such laborers robbers 
of divine honor and enemies of souls, and those es¬ 
pecially deserve that name who by levity in their 
intercourse with worldly persons, or by an unedi¬ 
fying and unrecollected demeanor, pull down what 
they or others build up. 


SECOND MEDITATION. 

OF THE BIRTH OF OUR LORD. 

“For a child is born to us, and a son is given to us, and the 
government is upon his shoulder” (Is. ix. 6). 

First Point. 

Let us now transfer ourselves in spirit to the 
stable at Bethlehem; let us look at the new-born 
Saviour. We see a little child, wrapped in swad¬ 
dling-clothes, carried in arms because it cannot 
walk by itself, crying and babbling because it can¬ 
not as yet speak, still fed with milk by its virgin 


201 


Of the Birth of Our Lord. 

Mother, because it cannot bear stronger food. And 
yet this feeble, tender, and helpless little child is 
He from whom all strength comes, before whom 
the weak are strong and the strong weak: the Al¬ 
mighty God, the Lord and King of glory. It is 
a little child, says the Prophet, and yet he says at 
the same time that the name of this child is “ Won¬ 
derful, Counsellor, God, the Mighty, the Father 
of the world to come, the Prince of peace” (Is. ix. 
6). Several reasons may be mentioned why Our 
Saviour chose to appear as a child here in this 
world. In the first place, in order to be like unto 
us in all things and to bear all human infirmities 
except sin. In the second place, in order to suffer 
for us more effectually and more protractedly; as a 
sweet and most gracious child to win our hearts 
more entirely , and finally by His example to show us 
the way by which we can and must come to God. 
Our first parents through sin departed from the 
childlike simplicity and innocence with which God 
had endowed them, and thereby lost Paradise for 
themselves and for us. We cannot regain it except 
by returning as conquerors and victors to where 
our first parents stood as they came forth from the 
hands of God. Our Lord therefore says in the 
Gospel: “Amen I say to you, unless you be con¬ 
verted, and become as little children, you shall not 
enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt, xviii. 3). 
If one of the holy Fathers had ventured to use this 
expression many would have been tempted to con¬ 
sider it exaggerated; but as it comes direct from the 
lips of Eternal Truth it puts an end to all doubt. 


202 


Eighth Day: Second Meditation. 

By tliis commandment our entrance into lieaven 
is not rendered more difficult, but on tlie contrary 
much easier; we know from other divine pro¬ 
nouncements that the kingdom of heaven suffers 
violence and that no one can take it who is not con¬ 
stantly doing violence to his sensual inclinations; 
and this is a hard and difficult matter, requiring the 
strength of a man and not that of a little child. 
But as Our Lord demands of us nevertheless that 
we should become as little children, He shows us 
thereby that childlikeness is the safest means of 
overcoming these difficulties, of making sure of that 
assistance of His grace without which we can neither 
overcome that which is difficult nor that which is easy. r 
“ Come to Me all you that labor and are burdened, 
and I will refresh you. Take up My yoke upon 
you and learn of Me, because I am meek and 
humble of heart: and you shall find rest to your 
souls. For My yoke is sweet and My burden is 
light” (Matt. xi. 28-30). Our Lord does not deny, 
then, that His law is a yoke and a burden, but He 
calls it a sweet yoke and a light burden for those 
who are humble and childlike of heart, because He 
refreshes such with the sweetness of His love and 
sustains them with the strength of His grace. 
Those, therefore, who by preference choose the 
way of childlike simplicity have chosen the easiest 
way of salvation and perfection and at the same 
time the safest; for it is impossible that His grace 
should depart from a soul which clings to Him 
in a childlike way. God does not desire that 
which is great and exalted according to human 


203 


Of the Birth of Our Lord. 

conceptions: for what could be great and exalted 
in the sight of Him who has the earth for His 
footstool and heaven for His throne ? It is the 
small thing He is seeking, the humble, the simple 
thing which takes His heart by storm and to which 
His majesty condescends, just as it condescended 
to the womb and the arms of the most humble of 
virgins. Oh, that all those would take this to 
heart who are anxiously considering how high and 
steep the ways are which lead to perfection, wdio 
labor on by-ways which do not lead direct to their 
goal; who are searching afar off for what is lying 
so near; oh, that they w^ould endeavor, above all 
things, to be simple and childlike of heart! How 
easily would they then overcome hindrances and 
obstacles which at present appear to them wellnigli 
insurmountable! 

Second Point. 

But if the childlike mind is necessary for all who 
want to enter the kingdom of heaven, a religious 
stands in a very special way in need of this virtue. 
The central principle which lies at the foundation 
of the religious state is the consciousness that the 
highest perfection consists in man becoming a 
child in closest possible obedience to the evangeli¬ 
cal declaration, and to be by free choice and gener¬ 
ous self-denial what children are without a choice 
and struggle by reason of their natural disposition. 
Children are easily satisfied; their wants are limited 
to what is necessary: if that is provided they are 
content, for they have no idea of property and of 
the value of things, and therefore no desire to be 


204 


Eighth Day; Second Meditation. 

rich or to possess much. Again, children are pure 
and innocent; they do not as yet know that attrac¬ 
tion of earthly things which excites the passions of 
men of riper years. The two. leading human pas¬ 
sions, pride and sensuality, are still slumbering be¬ 
neath the covering of happy ignorance, and they 
thus live in purity and freedom of heart. Children, 
finally, may be moulded like wax; they give them¬ 
selves up to be led by their parents and never im¬ 
agine that things might be otherwise. They do 
not only what they are told so far as their outer 
actions are concerned, but they also believe what 
they are told and view things in the way they are 
presented to them. 

To precisely this condition a religious is to at¬ 
tain by means of his three religious vows. By the 
vow of poverty, if it is loyally kept, money and 
goods and riches become as worthless and indif¬ 
ferent to him as they are to children; he has not 
even a desire for them, because he could not in 
any case dispose of them at his own free-will, and 
even in those things which are necessary, the life 
in community closes the door against greed and 
envy. By the vow of perfect purity and of renun¬ 
ciation of the world, of its hopes, its honors and 
pleasures, he steps entirely outside the circle of 
worldly circumstances; ambition and sensual de¬ 
sires lie outside the limits of his state and calling, 
and if he continue faithful in this renunciation, 
he will attain to the same purity and freedom of 
heart which little children have, except that what 
in children is merely the result of ignorance is 


205 


Of the Birth of Our Lord. 

with him the outcome of virtue and merit. By the 
vow of obedience, lastly, he is to surrender his 
own will as children have to do. He who fulfils 
this vow to its full extent obeys by reason of his 
independence as blindly and without questioning 
as a child obeys by reason of its want of indepen¬ 
dence. He is obedient not only in his actions, but 
also in what he thinks and judges and desires con¬ 
cerning them; lie also allows his inner life to be 
directed and judged by others, and there is thus 
nothing left in him that is not subject to the will 
of God, made known to him by the mouth of his 
superiors. And those who have in this way be¬ 
come little children are indeed born again in the 
spirit to a new life of grace, and they can say with 
St. Paul: “ And I live, now not I; but Christ livetli 
in me” (Gal. ii. 20). “In malice be children,” as 
the same Apostle says (1 Cor. xiv. 20), but a man 
in moral power and real strength of spirit. A child 
he has become in the foolish things of the world; 
but a master in the knowledge of salvation. He 
appears like one tied hand and foot, and yet he is 
the freest of all, the poorest and yet the richest; 
he seems to be without comfort, and yet the most 
comforted of all; having lost all, he lias gained all; 
having cast away all things, he has laid hold on all 
things; having forsaken all things, he has found 
them again. He has found God who is all and in 
all. 

This, then, is the central thought of the religious 
state, and this is the condition to be aimed at, not 
only by the three vows, but by all other usages 


206 Eighth Day; Second Meditation. 

practised in religious liouses; sucL, for instance j 
as accusing one’s self and being accused of one’s 
faults, humbly accepting small penances for them, 
receiving rebukes on one’s knees, giving account to 
one’s superior of one’s inner life; asking his bless¬ 
ing upon it all. It was not witho'ut good reason 
that the founders of religious orders instituted these 
practices. It was their wise purpose by constant 
practice to preserve a childlike simplicity among 
their members. That is the reason, too, why the 
religious state and its practices and the entire 
monastic life is so hated by the world and worldly 
persons, because there is nothing so incomprehen¬ 
sible to them as the spirit of holy simplicity. But 
a religious who does not understand this central 
thought or who will not understand it, and who 
considers himself too great and wise to bend down 
to the simplicity of a little child, has either from 
the very beginning made a mistake in the choice of 
his calling, or he has later on become unfaithful to 
the grace of his state, and will therefore neither at¬ 
tain to real progress nor to true contentment in it. 

Third Point. 

“ Wherefore, laying away all malice and all guile, 
and dissimulations, and envies, and all detractions, 
as new-born babes, desire the rational milk without 
guile: that thereby you may grow unto salvation: 
If so be you have tasted that the Lord is sweeit. 
Unto whom coming, as to a living stone, rejected 
indeed by men, but chosen and made honorable by 
God: Be you also as living stones built up, a spirit- 


‘207 


Of the Birth of Our Lord. 

ual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spirit¬ 
ual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ ” 
(1 Peter ii. 1-5). Let us, too, then, put away 
all malice, all false independence, all high-flown 
opinions and views which through the education 
of our age we have drawn in like mother’s milk, 
which is unwholesome. Let us as those born anew 
in Christ desire that genuine milk of simplicity 
and cliildlikeness in which we taste the sweetness 
of the Lord and by which we shall grow up unto 
eternal salvation. Let us cling close to that living 
corner-stone, Our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us fol¬ 
low Him who already as a child iu His cradle 
taught us the lesson of poverty, purity, and obedi¬ 
ence. Let us not be ashamed to become children 
out of love to Him, since He was not ashamed to 
become a child out of love to us. Let us build 
ourselves up in Him to a spiritual house which He 
may truly call His own; in it let us daily and 
hourly offer to the Lord spiritual sacrifices: the 
sacrifice of obedience, of self-denial, of entire sur¬ 
render of our own will, which are acceptable to 
Him through the obedience and merits of His only- 
begotten Son, Jesus Christ. 

It is in perfect obedience that a. true simplicity of 
heart must chiefly show itself. It is not only the 
easiest and safest way to salvation and holiness, 
but it also points out to us step by step where we 
are to plant our foot on this already trodden road so 
as not to hurt it against a stone; how we may fly 
rather than step out slowly and with effort. Those, 
therefoje ; who find many difficulties in the spirit- 


208 Eighth Day; Second Meditation. 

ual life, whose hearts are constantly troubled with 
temptations from which they cannot free them¬ 
selves, will not be far wrong if they seek the cause 
in their own self-sufficiency. It is because they 
guide themselves and withdraw themselves from 
the direction of their superior ; because they still 
desire to be and to be accounted something, and 
because they cannot make up their mind to re¬ 
nounce themselves and their own will. Such per¬ 
sons may seek after the soul’s peace, but they will 
never find it. They will have to bear the yoke 
since they have taken it upon themselves, but be¬ 
cause they bear it with repugnance and are con¬ 
stantly seeking to shake it off, they experience only' 
its pressure, none of its sweetness; its sharp point 
only penetrates deeper as they are trying to kick 
against it. They become an unbearable burden to 
themselves, a stone of offence to their brethren, a 
scourge to their superiors, to the entire body use¬ 
less members, and to the Lord their God objects 
of extreme displeasure. 

That this picture is not an exaggerated one is 
proved by the deeply moving words once spoken 
by Our Lord to Blessed Margaret Alacoque: “ At¬ 
tend carefully,” He said, “to what is being said to 
thee by the mouth of Truth. All religious who are 
estranged from their superiors and not of one mind 
with them, must regard themselves as vessels of 
damnation, the good balsam of which is passing 
into corruption, and who are only hardened by the 
rays of grace, just as the sun hardens the refuse 
upon which it shines. Such souls are outcasts 


201 ) 


Of the Hidden Life of Christ. 

from My heart, and the more they seek to approach 
by the sacraments and prayers and other exercises, 
the more I withdraw from them on account of the 
loathing which they awaken within Me. They will 
pass from one hell into another. It is through this 
variance that so many have perished, and that they 
will thus be the cause of the downfall of so many 
others, for a superior, be he good or bad, repre¬ 
sents Me. His subordinate, therefore, who thinks 
that he is wounding him, is wounding himself just 
as much. He will sigh in vain at the door of My 
mercy; I will never listen to his cry unless I also 
hear the voice of his superiors. ” 

THIRD MEDITATION. 

OF THE HIDDEN LIFE OF CHRIST. 

“Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary. . . . And they 
were scandalized in regard of Him” (Mark vi. 3 ). 

First Point. 

The meditation on the hidden life of Christ be¬ 
fore the commencement of His public ministry is 
but a continuation of the preceding ones. Our 
Lord teaches us there what He has taught us as a 
new-born child: holy simplicity and the childlike 
mind; and He shows us very clearly in His riper 
years in what manner we may and should practise 
these virtues. Let us then imagine our dear Lord 
and Saviour in the house at Nazareth. Is it not 
He who has created all that we see around Him 
and who could create a new world if He chose ? 


210 


Eighth Day ; Third Meditation. 

And yet we see Him felling trees, cutting and saw¬ 
ing wood, carrying water and serving in the kitchen, 
and performing a]l those tasks which-are peculiar 
to an ordinary trade and to a humble household. 
Is it not He before whom every knee must bow of 
things in Heaven and things on earth and things 
under the earth ? And yet He is subject to His 
Mother and to His foster-father in all things and 
obedient to their every wish. Is He not Eternal 
Truth and Wisdom, which need only open its mouth 
to make known the most hidden secrets and to con¬ 
vert all nations of the earth ? And yet He is silent 
and has not opened His mouth since as a boy, only 
twelve years old, He taught in the Temple. Is He 
not the true Light enlightening every man coming 
into the world ? And yet He lives in darkness, 
scarcely known and recognized by any one save 
His holy parents. 

These things, it is true, are contradictions for 
those who have no higher light than that of their 
natural reason, and who know no higher wis¬ 
dom than the wisdom after the flesh, to whom it 
seems incredible that the Almighty, the Creator 
and Lord of all things, should have had nothing 
more important to do than to perform these 
humble and contemptible duties. But these are 
the mysteries of the Kingdom of God concerning 
which Our Lord testifies in the Gospel: “ I con¬ 
fess to Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, 
because Thou hast hid these things from the wise 
and prudent and hast revealed them to little ones” 
(Matt. xi. 25). And these mysteries are hidden 


‘211 


Of the Hidden Life of Christ. 

from all those who think themselves great and wise. 
In the blindness of their puffed-up minds and the 
emptiness of their impoverished souls, they do not 
suspect that the God of infinite power and wisdom 
is also a God of infinite love, that nothing is great 
before Him which is not founded on humility and love , 
and that there is nothing greater than to do His 
most holy will with a simple heart. 

But if these mysteries are not hidden, if they are 
clear and intelligible to us, it must be equally clear 
to us that there can be nothing greater and more 
important than to be faithful in little things and mi¬ 
nutely to observe our holy rule even in the smallest 
points. The order of the devotional practices, the 
observance of silence, the prohibition to visit cer¬ 
tain parts of the house, the obtaining the permis¬ 
sion of the superior for things required, and other 
little restraints of this kind appear to be small for¬ 
malities limiting the freedom of the mind and 
scarcely worthy of a man of mature years. But 
when looked at with the eye of faith, they are just 
as great and worthy as it was great and worthy that 
the Son of God should throughout thirty years live 
a hidden life and perform the most humble offices. 
Our Lord once said to St. Margaret: “Thou canst 
not please Me better than to walk with unswerving 
loyalty and without digression in the way of thy 
holy rule. The slightest transgression of it is 
great in My eyes, and a person in religion is greatly 
in error and estranges herself from Me when she 
imagines that she can find Me by some way other 
than that of the punctual observance of rule.” It is 


212 


Eighth Day; Third Meditation. 

impossible then for a religions even to commence 
making progress toward perfection unless he is 
faithful to rule in little things: chiefly so because 
all perfection must begin in seeking to do the will 
of God; but also and because one, cannot increase 
in holiness without the constant practice of humility 
and the denial of one's own will. But it is just these 
two virtues which are daily and hourly practised 
by the punctual observance of rule; he, therefore, 
will be strong in all virtues who is faithful in 
these; and he who is negligent in them remains 
weak in allr 

Second Point. 

But the central point of these two meditations 
consists in the truth that the spirit of God is a 
spirit quite other than the spirit of the world, and 
that in their nature and working these two are 
wholly contrary the one to the other. The spirit 
of the world is a false, arrogant, boastful, restless, 
unstable spirit, in all things seeking self only ; he 
works with great noise and show. Money and 
worldly esteem, power and craftiness, wit and 
brilliant gifts of mind are the means and instru¬ 
ments of which he makes use. Tlte spirit of God , 
on the other hand , is a calm , gentle , peaceful , humble , 
sincere , simple , and stable spirit readily sacrificing 
Himself. He works secretly and by means which 
according to the world’s views appear to be wholly 
worthless; He carries out His greatest schemes 
amid the scoffs and scorns and opposition of the 
world. The cross by which Our Lord has re¬ 
deemed the world was and is to the Jews a stum- 


213 


Of the Hidden Life of Christ. 

bling-biock and unto the Gentiles foolishness. 
The apostles who converted the world became, as 
one of them testifies himself, as the outcasts of the 
world and the refuse of all men. The Church 
grew up amid the most cruel persecutions. The 
blood oi the martyrs was the seed of Christianity, 
and that which in the natural order of things could 
only weaken and destroy was the very thing that 
made her powerful and great. In later times too 
the greatest and most astonishing work of the King¬ 
dom of God was the conversion of entire peoples 
and nations by the poor members .of Religious 
Orders, who, without money, without power, and 
all external aids, solely through the power of faith 
and the humility of the cross, knew how to con¬ 
quer all hindrances. All must possess this spirit 
wdio desire to be true children of God and followers 
of Jesus Christ, as St. Paul says: “ Whosoever are 
led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God” 
(Rom. viii. 14). But how to make this spirit one’s 
own is shown us in the rules of asceticism and the 
principles of the saints. These principles are in 
themselves no article of faith, but they all find 
their support in Holy Scripture, in the divine say¬ 
ings of Jesus Christ and His entire life and w^ork; 
for they are only a fuller development and appli¬ 
cation of the doctrines whfch our divine Saviour 
has imparted to us both by His example and His 
words. 

The Church does not solemnly propose them for 
our belief; but innumerable revelations, of which 
we read in the lives of the saints and which are 


214 


Eighth Day; Third Meditation. 

beyond all reasonable doubt, testify to their genu¬ 
ineness and truth. They are, like faith itself, never 
contrary to but frequently above reason, and must 
be discerned in a light higher than that supplied 
by our natural reason. Living experience only 
creates a full apprehension in those who practise 
them in faith. “My doctrine is not Mine,” said 
Our Lord to the Jews, “ but His that sent Me. If 
any man will do the will of Him: he shall know of 
the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I 
speak of Myself” (John vii. 16, 17). In the same 
way the rules of the saints have the proof of their 
divine origin in themselves; those who shall live 
according to them will recognize by their fruits that 
they are of God, and we have this proof already 
illustrated in others: for they are called the rules 
of the saints, because the saints of all Christian 
times have accepted them, have regulated their 
way of acting and thinking in accordance with 
them, and have thus become sanctified; and up to 
the present time no one has become holy by any 
other method. 

Those, therefore, who are striving after perfec¬ 
tion, in particular every religious, must be con¬ 
strained by these rules. He will otherwise be with¬ 
out firm foundation and safe support, exposed to 
every wind of temptation and full of hesitation in 
all his doings, even in his vocation. For just as 
the willing acceptance of these rules is the safest 
sign of a genuine vocation to the religious life, so 
the love and esteem entertained for them is one of 
the most reliable signs of continuing in it. Those 


215 


Of the Hidden Life of Christ. 

whose aims and whose entire life are based upon 
them furnish the most assuring proofs that they are 
in earnest in the matter of their perfection and 
that they are progressing. In a similar way the 
degree in which the rules of the saints are esteemed 
and thought highly of in congregations constitutes 
a standard by which one may judge whether dis¬ 
cipline is still flourishing or whether a decline has 
crept in: for they are for the entire religious body 
the bond of union, the pillar of monastic order, the 
only principle according to which the superiors 
must rule and according to which those subordinate 
must be content to be ruled, if all is not to fall to 
pieces sooner or later. 

Third Point. 

Let it be our constant and most anxious care, 
then, not to cultivate the spiritual life too much 
according to natural principles, but wholly accord¬ 
ing to faith; let us resist every approach of worldly 
notions, and let the rules of the saints govern us 
more and more and flourish among us. Great care 
is the more needed in this matter since the rules of 
the spiritual life have never been more keenly at¬ 
tacked, and never was the danger greater of allow¬ 
ing a deceitful philosophy hostile to the doctrines 
and the spirit of Jesus Christ to creep in. St. 
Paul already warns the faithful against such phi¬ 
losophies, and his words seem to have been written 
for our own time. “ As therefore you have received 
Jesus Christ the Lord,” he writes to the Colossians 
(ii. 6-8), “walk ye in Him, rooted and built up in 


216 Eighth Day ; Third Meditation. 

Him, and confirmed in the faith, as also you have 
learned, abounding in Him in thanksgiving. Be¬ 
ware lest any man cheat you by philosophy and 
vain deceit, according to the traditions of men, ac¬ 
cording to the elements of the world, and not ac¬ 
cording to Christ.” 

Let us above all things seek to acquire thorough 
humility, for it is this virtue which the sophists 
of our days attack most vehemently, because they 
know very well that by doing so they attack the 
very foundation of all Christian and spiritual life. 
Nothing is more hateful to them than the doctrine 
that man is not to think liiglil}' of himself and to 
love contempt. For this reason they set up dia¬ 
metrically opposed principles and teach that man 
is to esteem himself highly, in noble self-apprecia¬ 
tion to recognize, to study, and heartily to honor 
his own talents and to strive to get them recognized 
and properly esteemed by others: that it is there¬ 
fore his duty jealously to guard his honor and 
dignity and to detest and firmly resist any kind of 
humiliation. Such principles are the very pest of 
the spiritual life, and it is dangerous even to be 
touched by them. Our holy father St. Alphonsus, 
speaking of self-esteem, therefore says: “ This 
cursed word has brought so many laymen, priests, 
and religious houses to ruin, and is still continuing 
to ruin them. If any member of a congregation 
should ever set up such a principle I should con¬ 
clude that I saw one of the damned before me; and 
if this accursed spirit should ever penetrate into our 
congregation, it were better it was destroyed, and 


Of the Hidden Life of Christ. 217 

I always ask God to destroy it rather than to suffer 
the introduction of such pestilential principles.” 

Let us, therefore, hold fast to what the saints 
teach respecting the contempt of self and the love 
of such contempt, at least so far as the principle 
and our own desire are concerned, however weak 
we may be sometimes in carrying them out; and 
let us daily after holy Mass or communion ask 
Jesus Christ for some humiliation, as our holy 
father has recommended us to do. Nor let us im¬ 
agine that we can work more effectually if we 
accommodate ourselves more to the world and 
make friends with it. God will then withdraw His 
blessing, and we shall not convert the world but the 
world will pervert us. Let us observe the rules; 
let us earnestly strive after perfection; let us keep 
as far away from the world as our vocation permits; 
let us patiently bear its scorn and hatred. We 
shall then be fit instruments in the hands of God. 
He will work greater things in us and by us than 
we imagine, for He is the Lord, He holds all hearts 
and all the powers of the earth in His hand, and 
He can and will direct them according to His pur¬ 
pose. The hatred and oj^position of the world 
should neither distress nor mislead us, but, on the 
contrary, should be the most precious pledge to us 
that we still belong to Jesus Christ, that we are 
still His disciples and servants; for He says in the 
Gospel: “ If the world hate you, know you that it 
hath hated Me before you. If you had been of 
the world, the world would love its own; but be¬ 
cause you are not of the world, but I have chosen 


218 


Eighth Day; Third Meditation. 

you out of the world, therefore the world hateth 
you” (John xv. 18, 19). Let us especially stand 
firm amid the storms of our time; for, for us too, 
the season of persecution may suddenly come like 
a thief in the night; then he alone,will stand who 
has constructed his building, not on the shifting 
sand of human wisdom, but as a fellow-citizen of 
the saints, and a domestic of God, upon the foun¬ 
dation of the apostles and prophets, upon that 
chief corner-stone in Sion, elect and precious, 
Jesus Christ Himself, who will not suffer those to 
be confounded who believe in Him and who hope 
in Him (Ephes. ii. 20). “ Eja, non degeneremns 

ah excelsis cogitationibus filiorum Dei! Eja ”—“ Let 
us not fall away from the lofty sentiments of the 
children of God,” the venerable Father Alvarez 
used to say to his novices, in order to encourage 
them not to depart from the rules of the saints, and 
with the same words some of them faced a martyr’s 
death w T hen in the power of heretics they heroically 
shed their blood for their faith. 


IRtntb 


FIRST MEDITATION. 

JESUS AT THE MOUNT OF OLIVES. 

“ And being in an agony, He prayed the longer; and His 
sweat became as drops of blood trickling down upon the 
ground” (Luke xxii. 43). 

First Point. 

The end of His great and laborious work has 
now come, and Our Lord departs to the Mount of 
Olives. But as yet the night brings Him no rest; 
on the contrary, it brings Him the greatest of all 
the conflicts through which He has had to pass for 
our sakes. He is standing at the ver}' door of the 
Holy of Holies into which He is to pass by His 
own blood in order to work out eternal redemption 
for us, and His most sacred humanity shudders at 
the thought of what this sacrifice is to cost Him. 
He foresees in spirit the unspeakable torments, 
the cruel shame, the bitter death which await Him. 
But that is not the cause of His great sadness; what 
is paining Him so much is the ingratitude of men 
for whom He is now passing to His death. For 
He can not only see what is happening now in the 
present; He can not only see the fiendish malice of 
the Pharisees, the fickleness of the people, the 


220 


Ninth Bay; First Meditation. 

cruelty of the soldiers, the betrayal of Judas, the 
cowardice of His disciples, the denial of Peter; He 
can look into the most distant future to the very 
end of the world, ^tnd can foresee the sius, the 
transgressions, the cruel deeds of,man. He can 
foresee that numbers will despise His love, that 
they will reject His redemption and perish eternally 
through their own fault. He can see that even 
among the elect, among those whom He has over¬ 
whelmed with special proofs of His love, many will 
respond to it but coldly and half-heartedly, will 
bestow their affection upon the creature and will 
scarcely give Him a place in their hearts. It is 
chiefly by these reflections that His soul is agi¬ 
tated; it is they which in ever-increasing anguish 
force the blood from His veins and which fill His 
soul with such pain that an angel comes to 
strengthen Him so that He may not succumb 
already now. St. Teresa tells us in the history 
of her life that for many years she had daily 
meditated on this mystery, and that these medita¬ 
tions were for her the preparation and beginning 
of the higher prayer. She says: “As I could not 
work with my understanding, my mode of prayer 
was to inwardly realize Jesus as being present. 
I loved best to be with Him when He was alone, 
because I thought that at the season of His greatest 
sadness and loneliness He would, moved by my 
need and poverty, be most likely to suffer me 
to be with Him. I often thus prayed to Him in 
simplicity, and was never so comforted in mind as 
when I accompanied Him in thought to the Mount 


221 


Jesus at the Mount of Olives. 

of Olives and pictured to myself His unspeakable 
suffering, how in His death anguish He was stain¬ 
ing the earth with His blood. My most eager de¬ 
sire was to wipe the sweat from His brow; but I 
remembered that as a great sinner I might not 
dare to do this.” 

Let us also in thought take our place by the 
side of the suffering Saviour and bear in mind 
how much our sins have contributed to put Him 
in such a dreadful position. Not only the sins 
of our past life, but our faithlessness, our luke- 
warmness in our religious state have wrung these 
drops of bloody sweat from Him; and let us also 
seek to wipe them away by a sincere and loving re¬ 
pentance and by the earnest resolution to live a new 
and more zealous life. It is true we too are sinners 
and infinitely more so than St. Teresa in her hu¬ 
mility acknowledged herself to be; but this should 
not keep us from approaching Our Lord in con¬ 
fidence. It, on the contrary, should encourage us 
to do so; for he whom much is forgiven should also 
love much. Our Lord Himself demands this of us, 
and is waiting for it with the burning desire of His 
loving heart. We cannot comfort Him better in 
His anguish than by showing Him that He has not 
suffered so much for our sakes in vain, that His 
sweat and blood have softened the hard soil of our 
hearts, and that they have brought forth in us the 
fruits of love. 


222 


Ninth Day; First Meditation. 


Second Point. 

Just as Our Lord is, in all tlie conditions of His 
earthly life, a type whom we are to imitate, so His 
example at the Mount of Olives also teaches us, 
among other things, steadfastness in prayer. Al¬ 
though His soul is exceedingly sorrowful and He 
is even now struggling with death, yet He does not 
cease to pray; indeed He prays more fervently and 
without ceasing: “ prolixins orabat He prays unto 
blood sweat. This is not demanded of us; but 
often we do not even pray unto ordinary sweat, 
unto the full exertion of those powers which we 
can and should use with regard to prayer. Our 
early love has long since grown cold; we have grown 
weary; we have long since got used to saying our 
prayers carelessly and negligently, and this is the 
chief reason why they do not bear their perfect 
fruit and make us perfect. We can, by means of 
prayer, obtain every grace from God; but we must 
take pains about it and thus make ourselves worthy 
of it. “ In the sweat of thy face slialt thou eat thy 
bread” (Gen. iii. 19), the Lord said to Adam. In 
the sweat of our face we must also eat our spiritual 
bread, the food of our souls. Prayer too must be 
a labor, a conflict, a w r restling with God for His 
grace, and those who do not start with such a view 
of the matter will never make progress in that art 
of all arts, the art of praying. If Our Lord desires 
to raise a soul to a higher sphere and to introduce 
it to the rest of contemplative prayer, He will Him¬ 
self place it in that state without its own choice 


2 23 


Jesus at the Mount of Olives. 

and without its being able to resist Him. But as 
a rule this does not happen unless a soul has al¬ 
ready, for a long time past, exercised itself with 
the greatest fidelity in active prayer, as we see in 
the case of St. Teresa and so many other saints. 

It is, therefore, not a question of suffering no dis¬ 
traction at all during prayer, for it is not in our 
power to prevent this. But it is in our power to 
strive against it, and it is this strife, this effort, this 
cross which God demands of us and which He re¬ 
wards with His graces. It is no less in our power 
to prepare ourselves for prayer, and to the best of 
our ability to remove beforehand anything likely to 
deprive the heart of quietness and the soul of rec¬ 
ollection. Those, therefore, who exercise no self- 
control during the day, who seek distraction, who 
give themselves up to vain thoughts and desires, 
whose hearts cling to earthly things, who have ex¬ 
empted themselves from all mortification and do 
not even observe the laws of moderation, dare not 
complain that their thoughts wander when the time 
of prayer comes, and they will not have the grace 
of proper recollection; for it is written: “Before 
prayer prepare thy soul: and be not.as a man that 
temptetli God” (Ecclus. xviii. 23). Again it is not 
a question of always feeling naturally inclined to 
prayer and able to follow the course of some medi¬ 
tation with ease, for this too is not always within 
our power. But however dry our soul may be, it 
is always in our power to humble ourselves before 
God, to unite ourselves with Him by faith , to exercise 
ourselves in pious ejaculations, to weigh and renew 


224 


Ninth Day; First Meditation. 

our resolutions, and to ask God for grace to carry 
them out faithfully. And in proportion as we gain 
the victory over ourselves and do violence to our 
nature, in the same proportion will our prayer gain 
merit before God and will it be fruitful in grace. 
Least of all is it a question of experiencing sweetness 
and inward consolation in prayer; for our sole aim 
should be to please God, and for that reason to im¬ 
prove our walk of life, to get rid of our faults, and 
to advance in all virtues. He, therefore, who does 
not apply the subject of meditation to his spir¬ 
itual needs; who only indulges in beautiful ideas 
without exercising his will and forming resolutions; 
who, moved by God to make certain sacrifices, 
resists His promptings and directs his thoughts to 
other subjects more in harmony with his inclina¬ 
tions, entirely misses the aim of prayer and can 
derive no benefit from it. 

To gather up all that has been said in a few 
words: One thing only is needful, namely, that we 
should in prayer seek God, and God only; that we 
should seek Him perseveringly and with a sincere 
heart. Those who seek God in this way will cer¬ 
tainly find Him, and their prayer will never be 
without fruit, even though it may not always taste 
sweet to the spiritual palate. It will nevertheless 
and without any sensible taste impart to them in¬ 
ward strength, for the Lord alone knows how His 
gifts should be distributed and what is useful and 
profitable for each. St. Teresa says that we should 
in prayer be like a standard-bearer, who would 
rather be cut in pieces than allow the standard to be 


225 


Jesus at the Mount of Olives. 

taken from his hands. In the same way we too must 
not cease from prayer, even though the discomforts 
we have to suffer under it be ever so great and the re¬ 
sistance which nature and Satan offer to this prac¬ 
tice ever so determined. Let us, then, evermore 
be such holy standard-bearers, and if the care for 
our salvation has not sufficient power to inspire us 
with this persevering zeal, let love urge us on, or, 
what is still better, love to our divine Master, who 
out of love to us continued in prayer even unto 
blood and sweat. 


Third Point. 

It is not only steadfastness in prayer which 
Our Saviour teaches us at the Mount of Olives, 
but also how to continue steadfast in faith when 
we are without comfort. There is a natural 
wretchedness of heart which must come, and which 
none can escape, but which seriously assails the 
spiritual life. Nature is no friend of loneliness, of 
silence, and of recollection; on the contrary, she 
loves society and conversation, change and distrac¬ 
tion. She is no friend of mortification; on the 
contrary, she loves taking it easy and attending to 
her comforts. She is no friend of obedience and 
submission to a fixed order; on the contrary, she 
loves to be unfettered and to choose for herself, 
according to the whim of the moment. Nor is she 
a friend of humiliation; on the contrary, she loves 
to be favored and flattered; she is well aware of 
her own excellences and is gratified when these are 
also recognized by others. If, therefore, we begin 


226 


Ninth Day; First Meditation . 

a new life now and enter upon these holy exercises, 
nature will not fail to show herself disconsolate; 
the old Adam will weep and lament when he finds 
himself torn from his warm nest of comfort and 
repose; he will assure us that we shall find it im¬ 
possible to bear it for any length of time; lie w r ill, 
under the most honorable pretexts, open the door 
to those old ways of life on which he had hitherto 
found his joys and consolations. 

All will depend, therefore, upon our attitude at 
such moments of discomfort, and this attitude will 
be decisive respecting the entire fruit of our spir¬ 
itual exercises. For as a rule everything we ac¬ 
quire in the spiritual life must pass through the 
fiery test of temptation before we can regard it 
as our abiding and assured possession. God, Our 
Lord, moreover, does not usually bestow additional 
graces if we have not proved ourselves loyal and 
steadfast in the use of those already received. If 
we cannot, therefore, withstand this temptation, if 
we yield to the demands of nature, if we grant her 
the comfort she craves, she will know how to rein¬ 
state herself before long in her former possessions. 
If the stream of lukewarmness has once broken 
through the bar of our resolutions, the whole of the 
fair crop of our spiritual renewal will be destroyed; 
we shall stand just where we stood before we began 
our spiritual exercises, and not even come to enjoy 
the comfort for which we have sacrificed our reso¬ 
lutions. For in the place of the wretchedness of 
the flesh which we did not care to bear, we shall be 
tormented by the wretchedness of the spirit, which 


227 


Jesus at the Mount of Olives. 

is far worse, because all earthly consolation is only 
vanity and vexation of spirit. If, on the other 
hand, we endure these temptations; if we continue 
for a time with our disconsolate Saviour at the 
Mount of Olives; if we steadfastly decline to yield 
to nature what she is demanding to the hurt of 
our souls, the gain secured by our spiritual exer¬ 
cises will be confirmed and strengthened; the blos¬ 
som will ripen into fruit; one grace will prepare 
the wa} r of another, one victory over ourselves the 
way of another, and even that natural wretched¬ 
ness will pass away in order to make room for a 
true and lasting joy of the soul. It is according to 
the order of the divine wisdom and justice that 
our works secure to us already now a portion of 
what we merit for them; that every indulgence of 
our sensual appetites punishes itself, and that 
every victory over them rewards itself. 

There are, however, conditions of wretchedness 
which are not due to nature but which come from 
God Himself. It is sometimes God who deprives 
a soul not only of all earthly consolation, but who 
for a time withholds all spiritual consolation too, 
in order that it might be purified like gold in a 
crucible, that the dross of self-love and of earthly 
inclinations might be melted out, and that it may 
be led through the night of faith into the true life 
of the spirit. Such trials are, it is true, painful 
and bitter; but they are also salutary for the soul 
and richer in precious fruit than all others. Happy, 
therefore, is that soul which is deemed worthy of 
such extraordinary grace; she will herself acknowl- 


228 Ninth Day ; Second Meditation. 

edge this when the season of trial is past and the 
time of visitation has come; she will rejoice in 
those infinite treasures which she has thus gained 
for herself, and enjoy an inward bliss which will 
far exceed all the other joys of the spirit. Let 
her, therefore, continue steadfast while the night 
of purification lasts, and let her cling close to her 
desolate Bridegroom at the Movyit of Olives; let 
Jesus in His bloody sweat be the subject of her 
constant meditation, her strength, and her help. 
Let His desolation be her comfort, His bloody 
sweat her refreshment; and let her in surrendering 
herself wholly into the hands of the Father say with 
Him: “ My Father, if it be possible, let this chalice 
pass from Me. Nevertheless not as I will, but as 
Thou wilt” (Matt. xxvi. 39). 


SECOND MEDITATION. 

JESUS ON THE CROSS. 

“ And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all 
things to Myself” (John xii. 32). 

First Point. 

We are now to consider the bitter suffering of 
Our Lord Jesus Christ as it is drawing to an end on 
the cross. But where are we to begin and where 
to end ? The material is far too abundant even to 
touch lightly upon each single point. We must, 
therefore, be content to cast one simple glance of 
faith upon this great sacrifice of love and draw 


Jesus on the Gross. 


229 


from it some equally simple thoughts and feelings. 
Let us then imagine our Redeemer, as He is for 
three hours hanging upon the cross in the anguish 
of death. His most tender virgin body is torn to 
pieces from head to foot by innumerable wounds 
inflicted by the scourge. There are so many of 
them that they would seem to be only one, and the 
entire body resembles a piece of raw and bleeding 
flesh which is only here and there covered by the 
lacerated skin. His limbs are bruised and dis¬ 
torted from the blows He has received and from 
the heavy weight of the cross, and His suffering is 
extreme. His nerves and sinews, here and there 
stripped of the flesh, are dreadfully torn and lacer¬ 
ated. His joints have been violently twisted; His 
hands and feet are writhing round the nails which 
cruelly pierce them. His face is covered with filth 
and spittle, sore and swollen from many blows. 
His eyes are painfully inflamed and closed with 
clots of congealed blood. His head is encircled by 
the terrible crown of thorns whose points, amid 
maddening pain, penetrate the skull. In addition 
to these unspeakable torments Our Lord is suffer¬ 
ing from a maddening, burning thirst, consuming 
His bowels like a raging fire, and, as by the un¬ 
natural position of the body the blood ceases to 
circulate and is pressed together in the region of 
the heart, there is added a sense of deadly anguish 
and oppression, increasing His sufferings to the 
very extreme. Any movement, however gentle, 
but increases His pain, since it strains the nerves 
and tears open the wounds. And because of the 


230 Ninth Day; Second Meditation. 

tliorns He cannot even rest His tired and wounded 
head against the cross. 

Thus Jesus hangs upon the tree of shame and 
pain, stripped of all human aid and consolation. 
The only refreshment which they give Him is 
vinegar and gall; the only comfort which they 
offer Him consists of mockings and insults, curses 
and blasphemies. But what is 'infinitely worse, 
divine aid too has forsaken Him; His soul lan¬ 
guishes in inward darkness and desolation, of which 
we could have had no conception had He not Him¬ 
self exclaimed with a voice which made the heavens 
tremble with compassion and amazement: “ Eli , 
Eli , Lamma sabachfhani /” (“Mv God, my God, 
why hast Thou forsaken Me !”) 

When we have considered all this, let us put to 
ourselves a few questions. Who is it that is suffer¬ 
ing such unheard-of torments ? It is not merely 
the purest, the most innocent, the holiest among 
men; it is the only-begotten Son of God Himself, 
the brightness of His glory, the image of His 
person, Our Lord and Our God. Why is He 
suffering all this? For us miserable, sinful creat¬ 
ures, to redeem us whom He has created out of 
nothing. He is suffering this for me too, a 
wretched, faithless, ungrateful sinner, who has 
often offended Him, who am a very abyss of weak¬ 
ness, wickedness, and worthlessness. But why is 
He not simply suffering death, why so many and 
manifold torments ? To draw us unto Himself, to 
compel us to love Him again who is so loving and 
lovable. It is for this reason that, extended on the 


Jesus on the Cross. 


231 


cross, He is yearningly stretching out His arms 
toward us. It is for this reason that His body is 
pierced by a thousand wounds, and that out of 
each there issues a dart of love toward us and a 
voice inviting us to love Him. For this reason too 
a spear will shortly be piercing His side, so that all 
may enter into His holy of holiest, into His heart, 
wounded and on fire with love, and discover and 
enjoy all the treasures of love which are hidden in 
it. “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will 
draw all things to Myself.” 

Second Point. 

But now what are we to think and feel with regard 
to these pictures of the imagination ? Those who 
are not moved and softened by them and inflamed 
with love, must either be devoid of faith or they 
must have a heart of stone. Rightly, therefore, 
says St. Paul: “If any man love not Our Lord 
Jesus Christ, let him be anathema, maran atha” 
(1 Cor. xvi. 22). Let us then love Our Lord Jesus 
Christ; but let us love Him in the right way, not 
only by fine words and elevated thoughts and senti¬ 
mental ideas, but in spirit and in truth, in works 
and deeds. Let us love Him with a strong, firm, 
decided love, with a love which is ready to make 
every sacrifice, which can endure the heat of con¬ 
flict and the furnace of temptation. Let us love 
Him by tearing ourselves away from everything 
that is not Himself, by doing His most holy will, 
and by striving to become more and more like 
Him. Those who love Jesus in sincerity also love 


232 Ninth Day; Second Meditation. 

all those tilings which He loved: poverty, obedi¬ 
ence, contempt, labors, prayer, sufferings, penance, 
self-denials. He, therefore, who evades obedience, 
in order to follow his own views and ideas, he who 
still seeks his own honor and who cannot bear the 
smallest humiliation; who, instead of loving pov¬ 
erty, work, and mortification, only longs for rest, 
refreshment, and comfort and for,an easy life; he 
who clings to a thousand little vanities and seeks 
his joy in the creature; he who is lazy and negli¬ 
gent in prayer, and who will not put forth all his 
strength in the matter of the spiritual exercises in 
order to conquer those evil habits and inclinations 
which are displeasing in the eyes of Jesus, does 
not possess the genuine love to Jesus, and shows 
that it is only fear which restrains him from the 
coarser offences. 

But fear alone can never make man perfect, for 
fear only impels him where some evil is threatening. 
But when the danger is not very near and apparent, 
fear easily overlooks it and allows itself to be per¬ 
suaded by the senses that there is no great danger 
as yet and no ground for troubling and being over¬ 
anxious. Love, on the other hand, is not so easily 
deceived; its glance is sharp and penetrating, be¬ 
cause it is not thinking of itself and its own 
advantage, but of its beloved and how it can 
please him. We should therefore measure all our 
actions by the standard of love, not by that of the 
law; we should not weigh our guilt or innocence by 
too mean a scale; we should not merely ask in a 
spirit of mean reserve: Is this a sin, or is it not ? 


Jesus on the Cross. 


233 


Ought I to do, or avoid, or do without this or not ? 
But we should ask with a large and generous heart: 
What does love demand of me ? How can I give 
joy to Jesus ? How can I secure His most sacred 
approval ? St. Paul, in counting up the fruits of 
the spirit in those who are Christ’s, says: “ Against 
such there is no law” (Gal. v. 23). The same is 
expressed by St. Augustine in the well-known say¬ 
ing: “Love, and then do as thou wilt.” 

But in order that we may attain to this love, we 
should frequently, indeed incessantly, meditate 
on the passion of Our Lord: we should become 
enamoured of it, as St. Alphonsus expresses it. 
Meditation on the suffering of Christ is inflam¬ 
mable material on which sacred love readily catches 
fire, and which it fans into a flame whose glow con¬ 
tinues longest in us. But we should chiefly, in 
moments of temptation, remind ourselves of Jesus 
Christ, His passion, and His love. When it is a 
question of exercising obedience in a matter which 
is contrary to our inclination, or of bearing patiently 
an unjust reproach or an unfounded accusation or 
a great humiliation; or of giving up some desire, 
to practise some difficult humiliation or to bravely 
gain the victory over some weakness, we should at 
once think of Jesus Christ, as He calls to us from 
the cross: My son, behold the wounds which I 
have received for thy sake; behold the crown of 
thorns which I have borne for thee; behold the 
blows, the scourgings, the mockings, and the ill- 
treatments which I have suffered for thy sake; be¬ 
hold this heart which was pierced with a lance; and 


234 


Ninth Day; Second Meditation. 

if thou acknowledges! all this as proofs of My love, 
prove to Me now thy love and concpier thyself out 
of love for Me. Oh, that we could take a fast hold 
upon this one exercise as a fruit of our inward re¬ 
newal, we should then be soon wholly transformed 
in our minds! “I entreat all,” exhorts our holy 
father St. Alphonsus in his circular letter, “ to im¬ 
plore the love of Jesus Christ, otherwise all our 
resolutions will be of no avail.” 

Third Point. 

But the passion of Our Saviour alone has not the 
power to touch our hearts and to move them to 
love Him; in His satisfaction we are furnished 
with the necessary ways and means of continuing 
steadfast in this love and of overcoming all the ob¬ 
stacles which obstruct our path. We should have 
to despair if we were to regard only our weak wills, 
our fickle hearts, and the power of our sensual 
nature; but we can and may find comfort in the 
thought that Jesus Christ has by His death and 
passion opened a way of free access to God and has 
obtained for us a right to every grace. What can 
our heavenly Father refuse us, if we offer Him 
the passion, the shame, the wounds, the blood, 
the pierced heart of His only-begotten Son ? 

“Christ hath loved us,” says St. Paul, “and 
hath delivered Himself for us, an oblation and a 
sacrifice to God for an odor of sweetness” (Ephes. 
v. 2). Where, therefore, the savor of the sacrifice 
ascends it is impossible for the Father to resist 
our petitions. Our Lord Himself has solemnly 


Jesus on the Cross. 235 

borne witness to this in His last sermon to His 
disciples when He said to them: “ Amen, amen, I 
say to you: if you ask the Father anything in My 
name, He will give it you. Hitherto you have not 
asked anything in My name. Ask, and you shall 
receive: that your joy may be full” (John xvi. 23, 
24). And because He is of the same substance 
with the Father, He declares in the same sermon 
that we may obtain all things from Him if we will 
ask Him for them in His own name and for the 
sake of His infinite merits: “ Whatsoever you shall 
ask the Father in My name, that will I do: that 
the Father may be glorified in the Bon, If you 
shall ask Me anything in My name, that will I do” 
(John xiv. 13, 14). But clear and definite though 
these divine promises are, their fulfilment must 
nevertheless always depend upon our asking what 
is for our benefit and for the glory of God. When 
this is uncertain the fulfilment is also uncertain; 
but there cannot remain any doubt when we pray 
for spiritual goods which are pleasing to God and 
profitable for our souls. 

We shall therefore infallibly be heard, when we 
pray with zeal and perseverance for the gift of 
prayer, for humility, for love of the cross, and other 
virtues we lack; when we ask for grace to conquer 
ourselves and our passions, to detach ourselves 
from all earthly things and to let Jesus be all in 
all to us. This is the very thing which God Him¬ 
self desires and demands of us, and which the Holy 
Ghost urges in us with intense entreaty. No one 
then need despair of attaining to the perfect love 


236 Ninth Day; Second Meditation. 

of Jesus Christ, though he be ever so weak and 
wretched and full of faults and infirmities. If he 
only has the sincere icill to love Jesus perfectly, and 
has at the same time a real and living trust in the 
power of prayer offered in the name of Jesus, he 
will undoubtedly attain his end and will be able to 
say with the Apostle: “ I can do all things in Him 
who strengtlieneth me” (Phil. iv. 13). Numerous 
passages, both of the Old and New Testaments, aim 
at awakening this trust in us, at quickening and 
increasing it, and this was one reason why Our 
Lord had to do and bear so much and why He ex¬ 
perienced every form of conflict and suffering. 
Por we are apt to look with greater trust and con¬ 
fidence for help from one whom we know to have 
been in a similar position and to be acquainted 
with its peculiar difficulties. Therefore St. Paid 
writes to the Hebrews (iv. 15, 16): “ For we have 
not a high-priest who cannot have compassion on 
our infirmities; but one tempted in all things such 
as we are, without sin. Let us go, therefore, with 
confidence to the throne of grace, that we may ob¬ 
tain mercy and find grace in seasonable aid.” 

However hard and impracticable the path upon 
which we have to enter may sometimes appear to 
us, let us have confidence; we shall find that it was 
trodden before by Him who trod it out of love to 
us, and who has softened it for us and made it 
smooth with His own blood. Nothing will befall 
us that has not before befallen Him; nothing can 
meet us wherein we do not also meet His comfort 
and His help; no conflict, no danger, no want, no 


237 


The Sorrowful Mother of God. 

anguisli, no pain can come upon us, whose sting 
He has not removed by His passion. For He, our 
eternal Higli-priest, has emptied the cup of all 
earthly bitterness to the very dregs and thereby 
won for us the power of not succumbing under 
similar trials. It is He who conquers and is also 
crowned in us; our victory is His; it concerns 
His own honor. He works in us not only to will 
but also to do; He loves those who love Him, and 
holds them so firm that no one can snatch them 
out of His hand. “Who then shall separate us 
from the love of Christ ? Shall tribulation ? or dis¬ 
tress ? or famine ? or persecution ? or the sword ? 
. . . In all these things we overcome because of 
Him that hath loved us. For I am sure that 
neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principali¬ 
ties, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to 
come, nor might, nor height, nor depth, nor any 
other creature shall be able to separate us from the 
love of God, which is in Christ Jesus Our Lord” 
(Rom. viii. 35-39). 

THIRD MEDITATION. 

THE SORROWFUL MOTHER OF GOD. 

“ And thy own soul a sword shall pierce, that out of many 
hearts thoughts may be revealed ” (Luke ii. 35). 

First Point. 

We cannot bring this series of meditations to a 
close without directing our thoughts to our Lady 
and our Queen—our beloved Mother. We have 


238 Ninth Day ; Third Meditation. 

gazed at tlie suffering Saviour ou the cross; let us 
now cast a glance at her who stood by the cross 
and who was deemed worthy to take part in the 
work of redemption. To see another person suffer 
great anguish is in itself, for all those who are not 
wholly without feeling, one of the most painful ex¬ 
periences we know of. But it is intensified if the 
sufferer stands in some close relationship to us, 
and in proportion to the severity of his pain and 
the degree in which we are able to comfort and 
succor him. If we measure the anguish of the 
most blessed Virgin by this standard, can ice 
imagine a sorrow which could he compared with hers ? 
Jesus, whom she beholds languishing on the cross, 
is her only and well-beloved Son and is at the same 
time her Lord and her God; she loves Him with 
the twofold love of a tender mother and of a soul 
wholly devoted to God. But she may not have the 
consolation of ministering to Him even the small¬ 
est comfort. On the contrary, she has to look on 
while His executioners increase His torments in 
every conceivable way ; to witness how, amid blows 
and kicks, they drag Him, the gentle Lamb, to the 
place of execution; how they dislocate His limbs as 
they fix Him to the cross; how, when His strength 
is exhausted, they revive Him with vinegar and 
gall; how the wicked Pharisees mock Him; how 
some of the people surrounding the cross, and even 
the thief crucified with Him, revile and blaspheme 
Him. Mary sees and hears all this, and with a 
mother’s sympathy suffers as though it were being 
done unto herself. The pains which Jesus is 


239 


The Sorrowful Mother of God. 

suffering thrill through her own members. The 
crown of thorns which bruise His head is bruising 
hers also; the nails piercing His hands and His 
feet are piercing hers too; the venomous abuses 
wounding His heart are wounding her heart also. 
But in order to be wholly conformed to her divine 
Son and to be a worthy sharer of His sufferings, 
she too, enlightened by a higher light, can foresee 
the countless sins by which men will sell and be¬ 
tray Him afresh and will nail their Redeemer to 
the cross; and all these sins are like two-edged 
swords which amid unspeakable agonies are pierc¬ 
ing her soul also. The swords are two-edged; for 
one edge is the anguish she is suffering at the mal¬ 
treatment inflicted upon her Son and her God; the 
other is her grief at the eternal misery of so many 
among mankind who, by their own fault, will for¬ 
feit the benefit of His redemption. 

With justice, therefore, does the Church salute 
Mary as the Queen of martyrs, justly does she 
apply to her the words of the Lamentations: “ 0 
all ye that pass by the way, attend and see if there 
be any sorrow like to my sorrow” (Lam. i. 12). 
But we will not merely pass by but remain with 
the most sorrowful Mother under the cross of the 
Saviour, and, losing ourselves in the contemplation 
of her sorrows, mourn and weep with her. Our 
sins too are among the swords which have wounded 
her mother’s heart, and it is but right and just that 
we should seek to make up for our transgressions to 
the best of our powers. The love we shall thus be 
showing her will be as healing balm to the wounds 


240 


Ninth Day; Third Meditation. 

which our liard-heartedness have caused her. 
“ Honor thy father and forget not the groanings of 
thy mother. Remember that thou liadst not been 
born but through them: and make a return to them 
as they have done for thee” (Ecclus. vii. 29). 

Second Point. 

However much this meditation may incite our sor¬ 
row and compassion, there is nevertheless another 
side to it, and that is full of joy and comfort for us; 
for it was beneath the cross that the Saviour com¬ 
mitted Mary to His beloved disciple St. John, and 
in his person to us all, to be our mother, and that 
He prepared f or us in this motherhood of Mary a 
firm support for our weakness and one of the most 
powerful aids to our salvation. Although He is, 
strictly speaking, our only Mediator, and in the 
humility of His mediatorial office unites in Him¬ 
self all that is calculated to awaken our filial trust; 
although He became man and our brother, He yet 
remained God, and although Our Saviour and Re¬ 
deemer, He is yet the judge of those whom He has 
redeemed. Now, in order that none might be de¬ 
terred from approaching Him by the majesty of 
His Deity and the severity of His office as Judge, 
He has given us in Mary an advocate with Himself 
and an intercessor of grace. If then the conscious¬ 
ness of our unworthiness holds us back from pre¬ 
senting our petitions to the Most Holy One, an 
easier and sweeter way still remains open to us: 
we need but address ourselves to Mary, for there 
is nothing in her that could deter us. Let us 


241 


The Sorrowful Mother of God. 

offer to the Son the merits, the virtues, and the 
love of His beloved Mother; let us remind Him of 
the virgin milk with which she nourished Him, of 
the motherly tenderness with which she nursed 
Him, of the tears she shed on His account, of the 
seven-bladed sword that pierced her heart because 
of Him, and we shall be doing such tender violence 
to the childlike heart of the Son that He will never 
be able to resist it. We shall obtain everything 
from Him through the power of this intercession. 
He will not deny us even the greatest graces, if our 
heart be but sincere and we have great confidence 
in Mary. No one, therefore, will be able to find 
excuse for himself on the day of judgment on the 
ground that he has lacked abundant grace, if he 
has neglected to obtain through the intercession 
of Mary those graces which he needed and which 
he desired. 

But if we would be certain of the particular pro¬ 
tection of the Mother of God, we must bear her a 
particular love and veneration and prove ourselves 
to be her faithful and loving children. After God 
there is no one to whom we owe greater honor than 
the most blessed Virgin, seeing that as the actual 
Mother of God she possesses the highest dignity 
that can be conferred upon a created being. After 
God there is no one to whom we owe more grati¬ 
tude, since no one has done and suffered more for 
us and made greater sacrifices. After God there 
is no one who deserves more of our love, seeing that 
no human creature is more perfect and lovable and 
loves us more than she does. If, therefore, St. 


242 Ninth Day; Third Meditation. 

Paul curses liim who does not love Our Lord Jesus 
Christ, it may with right be said that he too is 
cursed who does not love our beloved Lady and 
Mother Mary. There is no need, it is true, to rouse 
ourselves to this devotion to the most blessed 
Virgin, for it is a heritage of our holy father 
Alplionsus which by the grace of God has been 
preserved intact among us. Still we should seek 
so to venerate her and to give her such proofs of 
our love as she desires and demands of us. We 
have praised her perfection in the service of her 
divine Son; she therefore expects of us that we 
should also serve her after a more perfect, manner 
than we serve others. And if we do not answer 
her expectations, it is doubtful whether purely ex¬ 
ternal devotions without the inward spirit, without 
real purity of heart, without a zealous walk of life 
will satisfy her, whether she will accept fair gifts 
offered to her in soiled vessels, and whether in life 
or death she will deem us worthy of her particular 
protection. 

Let us then honor the divine Mother not mere¬ 
ly by external honors, but also by tearing our¬ 
selves away from all earthly passions out of love 
to her, and by making her, after God and in God, 
the sole object of our love. Let us out of love to 
her aim after the highest purit}^ of body and soul, 
so that we daily offer the sacrifice of ourselves and 
unite all our daily crosses with the passion of Jesus 
and her own pains. Let us honor her by especially 
invoking her intercession in those matters which 
are most worthy of it, and ask of her the gifts of 


243 


The Sorrowful Mother of God. 

the spirit and all those virtues which are necessary 
for our perfection. There is nothing that Mary 
desires more than that all the love and honor we 
show her should contribute to the greater honor of 
God and to our salvation. Let us ask her in par¬ 
ticular to obtain for us the grace of perseverance, for 
the dispensing of this grace has been preeminently 
committed to her intercession by Our Lord because 
it is the most precious grace of all, and the con¬ 
summation of all the others. Only if we continue 
iu the dispositions and the resolutions which we 
have now formed, will they bear the fruit of eternal 
life. Let us, therefore, daily place our resolutions 
in her hands, so that she may preserve them for us 
during the day and bestow upon them by her 
motherly blessing the fruit of good works. She 
says, in those words which the interpretation of 
the Church puts in her mouth: “ I love them that 
love me: and they that in the morning early watch 
for me, shall find me” (Prov. viii. 17). 

Third Point. 

In contemplating the sorrowful Mother and in 
considering how Our Lord did not spare her suffer¬ 
ing, but, on the contrary, laid upon her the heaviest 
and most painful cross which after Him man has 
ever borne and will bear, another great and impor¬ 
tant doctrine forces itself upon our attention. It 
is the doctrine that crosses and suffering are the best 
portion of the elect here on earth. “ For the word of 
the cross,” says St. Paul, “to them indeed that 
perish is foolishness; but to them that are saved, 


244 Ninth Day; Third Meditation. 

that is, to us, it is the power of God. For it is 
written: I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and 
the prudence of the prudent I will reject” (1 Cor. 
i. 18, 19). The ivisdom of God lies in the cross ; for 
this mystery teaches us how, after the fall, pain 
comes to contain a healing, propitiatory power; 
how it comes to be the only remedy against the 
disorders which we have brought upon ourselves 
by the indulgence of forbidden lust; how, in the 
present state of things, pain and love are insepa¬ 
rably united to each other; how it is impossible to 
live in love without pain; how, therefore, Eternal 
Love has redeemed us by suffering and pain, and 
how we may unite ourselves with Him by the same 
means of suffering; how, finally, perfect love over¬ 
shadows pain and blends it with the purest joys of 
the spirit. He who has apprehended all this has 
found the key to all the mysteries of the Kingdom 
of God, and it may be said of him in the words of 
the Apostle that he has apprehended “ with all the 
saints what is the breadth and length and height 
and depth and the charity of Christ, which sur- 
passetli all knowledge” (Eplies. iii. 18, 19). 

But there is contained in the cross also the power 
of God , for the cross is the instrument by which 
the salvation and redemption of the world was ac¬ 
complished; it is by the cross that those will be 
saved who are predestined to salvation; it is the 
cross which leads those back to God who would 
not find Him in any other way, and which pre¬ 
serves and guards and confirms in their state 
those who are alread}^ the children of God. The 


245 


The Sorrowful Mother of God. 

cross finally prepares for tlie elect not only an 
imperishable crown in heaven; it is already here 
on earth a hidden source of sweetness for all those 
who bear it steadfastly and out of love to God. 
For suffering out of love, suffering in order to 
be conformed to the beloved, is the highest de¬ 
gree of self-sacrificing love. True love, however, 
is not like hatred, a state of pain, but a state 
of joy; and, although it cannot take away the 
sense of pain so far as man’s lower sensual nature 
is concerned, yet it creates in its higher nature a 
spiritual delight and sweetness which by far trans¬ 
cend this feeling. St. Paul, therefore, says: “I 
am filled with comfort, I exceedingly abound with 
joy in all our tribulation” (2 Cor. vii. 4). Hence 
the celebrated saying of St. Teresa: “Either 
suffering, O Lord, or death!” and that other say¬ 
ing of St. Mary of Pazzi: “Not death, O Lord, 
but suffering.” All the saints, therefore, had as 
great a desire for the cross and suffering as sensual 
men have for the consolations of the senses. Such 
then are the great advantages of the cross. Never¬ 
theless there are only very few real lovers of it; if, 
however, there be some, where should we look for 
them but in religious houses? For, for what other 
end does one enter the religious state, but to be a 
follower of Christ and out of love to Him to lead a 
crucified and mortified life ? Still in religious 
houses too the love of the cross is not a virtue very 
frequently to be found. As long as things follow 
their ordinary course; as long as all our needs are 
satisfied and our life, bodily and spiritual, is bear- 


246 Ninth Day ; Third Meditation. 

able; as long as we are not burdened with fatiguing 
work and, excepting the common trials of this life, 
there is nothing to torment us or weigh us down, 
and the cross remains modestly at a distance, we 
too are convinced that there is nothing greater and 
better and more meritorious than to bear the cross, 
and we even love it. But when ^approaches more 
closely and we feel its weight upon our shoulders, 
when we are to sacrifice our desires and inclina¬ 
tions, when we are to undertake laborious work, 
endure privations, slights, and humiliations, or to 
bear pain and sickness and inward desolation, we 
think generally of nothing more pressing and urgent 
to do than to try to the best of our powers to get 
rid of it again, and there is no end to our complain¬ 
ing and lamentations if we cannot do so at once. 
Indeed it looks sometimes as though we had only 
taken our vows in order to live quietly and free 
from care, to be rid of all the world’s anxieties and 
to attend to our devotions in comfort. “ When I 
was a child,” says St. Paul, “I spoke as a child, I 
understood as a child, I thought as a child. But 
when I became a man, I put away the things of a 
child” (1 Cor. xiii. 11). We have long since com¬ 
mitted ourselves to a spiritual life; let us also put 
away the things of a child; let us act as men, let 
us with manly steps follow after our patterns, Jesus 
and Mary; let us out of love to them manfully em¬ 
brace the cross, and we shall know and understand 
from personal experience what we now have to ac¬ 
cept on the testimony of the saints: the great mys¬ 
tery of the sweetness of the cross. 


Uentb 2>a^ 


FIRST MEDITATION. 

OF THE ASCENSION OF OUR LORD. 

“Therefore if you be risen with Christ, seek the things 
that are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of 
God” (Colos. iii. 1). 

First Point. 

All being finished now that was to be finished, 
Our Saviour’s earthly career conies to a close and 
He returns into the bosom of the eternal Father. 
He has redeemed mankind, has conquered death 
and hell, He is marked with the sign of victory 
and of infinite love: with the marks of those 
five wounds which are now shining more brightly 
than the sun, and, accompanied by multitudes of 
liberated souls, He makes His entry into heaven 
to sit down at the right hand of God. And in 
meditating on the triumph of Our Lord and 
Master we are reminded that in this too we are 
to follow after Him. “ And [if we are] sons, [we 
are] heirs also, heirs indeed of God, and joint 
heirs with Christ; yet so if we suffer with Him, 
that we may be also glorified with Him” (Rom. 
viii. 17). If we have fought a good fight, kept 
the faith and finished our course, we too shall 


248 


Tenth Day; First Meditation. 

go lienee to receive tlie crown of justice and the 
palm of victory from the hands of the just Judge. 
What an excess of unutterable joy we shall experi¬ 
ence at that moment! We shall feel like one who 
has dreamed a long and dreadful dream, and who 
awakens with the glad consciousness that it was 
only a dream and that he is in perfect safety. We 
shall be like a traveller who during a dark and 
stormy night has wandered about in a horrible 
wilderness surrounded by terrible precipices and 
threatened by a thousand dangers, and who, at the 
breaking of the day, perceives by the light of the 
rising sun that he has safely reached his journey’s 
end. Our life is indeed like a night, for we are on 
all sides surrounded by the darkness of impenetra- 
ble mysteries, and our holy faith only gives us light 
sufficient to enable us to recognize the right road. 
And our life is indeed a dangerous journey, because 
we pass at every moment along the abyss of eternal 
destruction and no one has infallible certainty that 
he will not fall over the edge. But this terrible 
danger we shall then have escaped forever; all fear, 
all anxiety, all pain w r ill then be forevermore at an 
end. “ And God shall wipe away all tears from 
their eyes: and death shall be no more, nor mourn¬ 
ing, nor crying, nor sorrow shall be any more, for 
the former things are passed away” (Apoc. xxi. 4). 

How we shall then learn to value the grace of 
that vocation which tore us away from the dangers 
of the w r orld; how we shall bless the day on which 
we entered our congregation; how we shall bless 
the cross, the sufferings, and humiliations which 


249 


Of the Ascension of Our Lord. 

we bore patiently, the penance which we practised 
steadfastly, the three vows of poverty, chastity, and 
obedience which we kept faithfully ! How we shall 
bless our superior, who showed no false pity toward 
us, but who out of love to us did not spare us and, 
like a father, reproved us because of our faults! 
How we shall bless our brethren who encouraged 
and edified us by their good example! How we shall 
thank our Mother Mary, our holy father Alplion- 
sus, our guardian angel, and all the saints for their 
faithful aid and protection which they afforded us 
in life and in death! How we shall thank Our 
Lord Jesus Christ Himself for the infinite love 
with which He gave His blood and His life for us, 
in order to make us the heirs of the Kingdom of 
God! “For the hope of the wicked is as dust, 
which is blown away with the winds, and as a thin 
froth which is dispersed by the storm: and a 
smoke that is scattered abroad by the wind: and 
as the remembrance of a guest of one day that 
I>assetli by. But the just shall live forevermore: 
and their reward is with the Lord and the care of 
them with the Most High. Therefore shall they 
receive a kingdom of glory and a crown of beauty 
at the hand of the Lord: for with His right hand 
He will cover them, and with His holy arm He will 
defend them” (Wis. v. 15-17). 

Second Point. 

By His ascension into heaven Our Lord, it is 
true, finished His work of redemption here on 
earth; but He still continues it in heaven and, ac- 


250 


Tenth Day ; First Meditation . 

complishes it in each one of his elect unto the end of 
the world. For as, according to tlie testimony of 
the Apostle (Heb. vii. 25), He is, by virtue of His 
eternal priesthood, “ always living to make inter¬ 
cession for us,” He is constantly offering His 
overflowing satisfaction to the Father in order to 
obtain for us grace and mercy, a»nd He provides 
that each should have his portion of this inex¬ 
haustible treasure according to his need. He is 
the wise Householder, who knows the necessities of 
those that are His and who makes provision to sat¬ 
isfy them at the proper season. He is the true 
Shepherd who knows all His sheep and calls them 
by their names and leads them unto good pasture. 
He is the mighty King who, from the throne of 
His glory, rules His kingdom on earth, whose 
sign all must obey and whose intentions all must 
serve. He possesses all wisdom and can discern 
what is salutary for us. He possesses all power 
and can carry out what He knows to be for our 
good. He is all love and chooses that which is 
best for us. He loves us better and more earnestly 
desires our salvation than we do ourselves. He 
can and will save us, if we will only surrender our¬ 
selves to Him wholly and without reserve and com¬ 
mit ourselves to His guidance. But here lies the 
stone of offence on the otherwise smooth path. 
“ The Lord only rules us in so far as we commit 
ourselves to Him,” says St. Teresa, “and our 
chief hindrance is that we cannot wholly believe 
that He already rewards us in this life a hundred¬ 
fold for every sacrifice we make for Him.” 


251 


Of the Ascension of Our Lard. 

We desire to be saved, but we like to determine 
the price for ourselves. We desire to be holy, but 
by ways aud means chosen by ourselves. We de¬ 
sire to serve God, but not in a way pleasing to Him, 
but pleasing to us. It is sometimes God’s will 
that we should be sick in order that we might serve 
Him by suffering; but we desire,to be well and to 
serve Him by works. It is God’s will that we 
should be sanctified by inward suffering and by 
toilsome prayer amid the darkness of faith; but 
we desire to be sanctified by prayer which is clear 
and easy and comfortable. It is God’s will that we 
should by contradictions, slights, and humiliations 
attain to greater virtue; but we desire to attain to 
it by works of penance which we select ourselves. 
It is God’s will that we should chiefly exercise 
ourselves in some special virtue of which we stand 
most in need; but we desire to practise other vir¬ 
tues which do not touch the right spot in our 
hearts. It is God’s will that we should work for 
Him in this particular house, in this office, in 
these duties; but we desire to work for Him in 
some other house, some other office and duties. 
We are anxious to make sacrifices, but not those 
which Our Lord demands of us; and these are just 
the sacrifices which alone have the odor that is 
pleasing unto God, and which alone can be called 
sacrifices because they are contrary to our nature 
and require the giving up of our own wills. But so 
long as we continue in this warfare against God 
and His most holy will, we are ourselves the great¬ 
est hindrances to our salvation and perfection. 


252 Tenth Day; First Meditation. 

We make those appointments, which are the most 
beneficial for us, of no effect, and inflict the greatest 
hurt upon ourselves both for time and for eternity. 
For if we generously made up our minds to these 
sacrifices, we would, as St. Teresa testifies, receive 
a hundredfold reward already here on earth. “ O 
my daughter,” Our Lord once said to her, “ how few 
there are who really love Me! if they loved Me as 
they should I would not conceal My mysteries from 
them. But do you know what it means to love 
Me? It means: to believe that all that is not 
pleasing unto Me is wrong. ” 

Let us cease then to fight against the Lord, let 
us surrender ourselves entirely into His hands, so 
that, like the potter giving form to the clay, He 
may shape us as it may please Him. Let us make 
every sacrifice which He points out to us as the 
source of His pleasure. Let us accept everything 
He sends us. Let us adore His holy will in all, even 
the smallest and most unpleasant events of our life. 
Let us seek and desire and demand nothing more 
here on earth than that His most adorable will may 
be perfectly fulfilled in us. But, because our 
weakness in this matter is so great and our self- 
love so deeply rooted in us, let us at least pray 
God daily from the depths of our hearts that He 
may do with us what seems good to Him, only not 
to let us pass from His fatherly guiding hands, even 
though we may sometimes seek to escape from 
them and, like unreasoning children, complain and 
lament over what is just the most beneficial thing 
for us. For in this conflict the victory is, not with 


253 


Of the Ascension of Our Lord. 

them that conquer, but with them that are con¬ 
quered. It is the greatest grace if Our Lord, in 
spite of the resistance which a soul offers to His. 
intentions, does not desist from carrying them out 
in her; if He takes by force what she is not inclined 
to give Him of her free will; if He closes every way 
of escape and, by trouble and suffering, brings her 
to that point to which she did not care to attain by 
her own effort. “ Whom the Lord lovetli, He chas- 
tiseth: and He scourgetli every son whom He re- 
ceivetli” (Heb. xii. 6). It is the greatest misfor¬ 
tune, on the other hand, if He grows weary of the 
persistence with which a soul withdraws from His 
guidance and if He finally leaves her to herself, to 
her foolish opinions, and the corrupt desires of her 
heart. This happens especially to those who seek 
to carry out their own will and desires in opposi¬ 
tion to the will and desires of their superiors and 
therefore to the clear will of God. 

Third Point. 

Let us also think of the great pledge of love 
which Our Lord has left here on earth, and which 
is nothing less than Himself. For, although He 
has ascended into heaven, He is still really and 
substantially with us and constantly abides on our 
altars, in order to comfort us by His presence and 
to nourish us with His most sacred body and blood. 
Adoration of the Holy of Holiest is, as it were, 
a heritage from our holy father Alphonsus, and 
a palladium of our congregation. But may we al¬ 
ways endeavor not only to preserve among us an 


254 


Tenth Day; First Meditation. 

outward veneration of this awful mystery, but also 
to celebrate it with that inward love, devotion, and 
purity of heart which Our Lord demands and ex¬ 
pects of us. 

Of all the insults which Our Lord has to endure 
at the hands of His own people, not the least is 
that which is offered to Him in the Blessed Sacra¬ 
ment ; for how deep must be His, pain when a con¬ 
secrated soul draws near to the divine feast, and 
withdraws from it again full of earthly desires and 
attachments and without the earnest determination 
to fight against them; when such a soul, instead of 
devoting all her powers to the worthy reception of 
the divine Guest, is content to utter indifferently 
a few prayers, or even to turn away from Him and 
to leave Him alone in the tabernacle of the heart, 
in order to let her thoughts run after vain and 
empty things. The Blessed Sacrament is a 
remedy against all sin and weakness, a shield and 
protection against all temptation, the nourislier of 
all virtues, a source of all light, and strength, and 
comfort, the fulness of all graces and good gifts, 
because in it we receive Him who is all grace. If 
any one, therefore, drinking daily or at least several 
times a week of this source of all perfection does 
not increase in perfection; if eating the bread of 
the strong he does not become strong, if consum¬ 
ing fire he is not warmed, there must needs be 
something lacking on his part. For whether and 
in what degree the Most Holy Sacrament works 
these special fruits in us, whether and how great 
and many graces we receive by it, depends solely 


255 


Of the Ascension of Our Lord. 

on our loyal cooperation, and especially on tlie 
care with which we make our preparation for holy 
communion and our thanksgiving after it. 

But the best preparation does not consist in our 
overflowing with tender feelings and emotions, but 
in preparing for Our Lord a pure heart and a 
dwelling-place acceptable unto Him; in carefully 
examining our conscience, therefore, in repenting 
of even our smallest faults, and in determining to 
shake them off. But it is more especially neces¬ 
sary that we should sincerely and effectually detest 
those unruly inclinations which lie at the root of 
our faults. These are the only obstacles which 
hinder the grace of God from entering our hearts 
and from working in it effectually. Those, there¬ 
fore, who do not tear themselves away from them, 
at least so far as their will and affection are con¬ 
cerned, and who are not firmly determined to use 
all necessary means in order to suppress them, re¬ 
ceive the holy communion, to say the very least, 
unprofitably, if, indeed, frequent reception without 
proper preparation does not increase their guilt. 

In the same way the chief object of the thanks¬ 
giving too, is the purification of the heart; a chief 
portion of it consists of petitions for graces which 
we need for our spiritual progress. The time dur¬ 
ing which Our Lord remains with us under the 
sacramental elements is a time of grace. He sits 
there as it were, and as St. Teresa says, on a 
throne of grace, and asks the soul, as He once asked 
the man born blind: “ What wilt thou that I should 
do unto thee?” And whatsoever the soul may then 


256 Tenth Day; Second Meditation . 

ask of Him witli earnestness and confidence, He 
will grant unto lier. Let us then carefully utilize 
this time of grace, let us open our whole heart to 
the Lord of grace, let us there lay before Him all 
our troubles and wants and necessities, disclose to 
Him our weaknesses and faults; let us ask Him for 
light to know what He desires of us and for power 
to do His will; let us place our, resolutions into 
His most sacred wounds in order that His most 
precious blood may permeate them, and that they 
may receive invincible strength against all tempta¬ 
tions ; let us wrestle with Him as Jacob wrestled 
with the angel, so that He may not leave us until 
He has blessed us and until He has poured out 
upon us the fulness' of His blessing. We need 
nothing but the proper use of this means of grace 
in order to attain unto perfection. 

SECOND MEDITATION. 

OF HEAVEN. 

“Blessed are they that are called to the marriage supper of 
the Lamb” (Apoc. xix. 9). 

First Point. 

Our Lord once said to Abraham: I am thy 
eternal great reward, and what He has promised 
and been to this holy patriarch He also promises 
and is to all His elect. God Himself is the reward 
of the blessed in heaven, and in Him they receive 
and enjoy all that can be considered a rew r ard 
and a desirable good. God is the highest truth, 


257 


Of Heaven. 

beauty, and goodness. To know Him as He is, 
satisfies all our yearning after what is true; to see 
Him face to face, calms our desire for the beautiful; 
to love Him with a pure love no longer dimmed by 
any earthly love, satisfies all our longing after the 
good and perfect. To possess Him is the good of 
all goods; to enjoy Him is the delight of all de¬ 
lights ; to live for Him alone is the life of lives. 
He is a fathomless abyss of bliss, in which there 
is neither end nor limit, nor any increase or de¬ 
crease. In Him is both the completest rest and the 
greatest activity; both the greatest oneness and the 
greatest diversity, an eternal being and an eternal 
becoming. “ Deep calleth unto deep at the noise 
of thy floodgates” (Ps. xli. 8), exclaims the Royal 
Singer. The blessed have scarcely lost themselves 
in an abyss of unspeakable joy when another 
similar abyss is already calling to them and invit¬ 
ing them to lose themselves in it, and just as a 
waterfall remains unchanged and presents the same 
appearance, and yet is every moment made up of 
fresh volumes of water, so it is always the same 
God whom the elect enjoy, although He assumes 
every moment a fresh and more enchanting form. 
“ He that sat on the throne said: Behold I make 
all things new” (Apoc. xxi. 5). 

All the grace and beauty of created things, and 
all the joy which they are capable of yielding, are 
but an image and reflection and mirror of the 
nature of the Creator and of the treasures which 
are contained in Him. All the true joys which we 
can have here, we shall therefore also have in heav- 


258 Tenth Day; Second Meditation. 

en, only they will be spiritualized, refined, trans¬ 
formed, and therefore increased to a degree which 
no eye has seen, no ear heard, and which no heart 
of man has conceived. We shall sit down to the 
marriage supper of the Lamb and partake of the 
most delicious spiritual foods, and drink of that 
wine of love of which it is written in the song of 
Solomon: “Eat, 0 friends, and*drink and be in¬ 
ebriated, my dearly beloved” (Cant. v. 1). Our 
company at the feast will be the great King Him¬ 
self who prepares the marriage feast for His Son 
and Jesus Christ in His most sacred humanity, 
and the most blessed Virgin and all the spirits of 
heaven. The sweet odors of eternal wisdom, which 
the AVise Man compares with the smell of cinna¬ 
mon and balsam, shall fill the whole heaven. The 
songs of praise which the angel choirs are inces¬ 
santly chanting to the glory of God, the playing of 
the harps of the four-and-twenty elders, the new 
song of the virgins everywhere following the Lamb 
are the supernatural music which we shall hear in 
heaven. The transparency which reigns there is 
compared in the Apocalypse with the light radiat¬ 
ing from a precious jewel, and the holy city needs 
not the “ sun nor the moon to shine in it. Eor the 
glory of God hath enlightened it, and the Lamb is 
the lamp thereof” (Apoc. xxi. 23). 

We shall, therefore, have everything there that we 
can desire and infinitely more than we are able to 
desire. We shall be filled with every good thing, 
and we shall possess them in perfect peace without 
fear and care, without disturbance and interrup- 


2o9 


Of Heaven. 

tion, throughout all eternity. And it is this eternal 
duration which makes the joys of heaven perfect, 
and of which we can have no conception; for here 
on earth every joy reaches its highest point and 
then declines and passes into satiety and is for¬ 
gotten, and we cannot conceive of any joy without 
at the same time thinking of its transitoriness. 
But in heaven a thousand years are with the Lord 
as one day, and one day as a thousand years. 
When the blessed shall have enjoyed their blessed¬ 
ness a million times a million years they will only 
be as though they had but just begun to taste of 
the sweetness of the Lord. 

Second Point. 

St. Paul reminds the Corinthians of the fighters 
and runners of races in the arena, who endured the 
severest of self-denials and privations in order to 
preserve all their strength for the end they strove 
after and to win the prize. And, contends the 
Apostle, if the hope of an earthly crown could 
achieve so much, should not the hope of that im¬ 
perishable crown held out as the great prize 
achieve much more and make us capable of equal 
privations ? We too, therefore, should think often 
of that imperishable crown, so that, by holy hope 
as well as holy fear and love, the longing of our na¬ 
ture may be satisfied and its craving after joy and 
happiness be stilled. God Himself has planted 
this longing in our hearts, not without purpose, 
much less in order to torment us, but that it 
may be satisfied, and satisfied most perfectly ; not 


260 Tenth Day; Second Meditation. 

in this life but in tlie other, and only when we re¬ 
nounce its imperfect gratification. When we are 
tempted, therefore, to give ourselves up to some 
earthly joy, let us at once remember that we shall 
not lose this joy if we disclaim it now, that we are 
merely deferring it, that we shall find it again in 
heaven, not merely as a shadow and reflection but 
in all its fulness and reality. The bride of a king 
will certainly repulse all other suitors and, with 
profound contempt, reject everything they offer 
her, because her eye is resting upon the throne 
awaiting her, and she knows that the love of her 
kingly bridegroom will compensate her a thousand¬ 
fold for all she has spurned for his sake. And we 
must do the same. Our souls are the brides of the 
King of kings, of the fairest and the most mighty 
Bridegroom; if in the state of probation we remain 
faithful to Him, He will one day unite Himself with 
us forever and then abundantly compensate us for 
all we have spurned for love of Him. 

But let it not only be our endeavor to be crowned 
but also to make our crown a fair one; for this too 
lies within our power, and to do it we have both 
vocation and grace; for those who are called to a 
higher perfection on earth are also destined to a 
higher state of bliss in heaven. And no false 
humility should keep us back from this effort, nor 
the thought that all our desires will anyway be fully 
satisfied in heaven and that we shall yearn for noth¬ 
ing more, not even for greater happiness; for this 
thought would prove that our faith is as weak as 
our love. The smallest degree even of a higher 


261 


Of Heaven . 

glory is a treasure of inestimable worth, and if bliss 
is worthy of all our striving and effort, an increase 
of it is equally worthy of it. A great degree of 
glory too always includes a higher degree of the 
knowledge and love of God, and in this matter no 
one is permitted to be indifferent. “ How gladly 
would I sacrifice life and health,” says St. Teresa 
in the history of her life, “ in order not to forfeit 
the very smallest portion of the highest bliss. In¬ 
deed if I had the choice of purchasing it at the cost 
of the greatest suffering to be borne till the end of 
time, or to spend that time in joy and to be content 
with a smaller portion of this bliss, I should not 
hesitate to choose the first, because I should thus 
attain to a clearer view of God, to a fuller knowl¬ 
edge of Him, whom one loves and praises and 
honors the more one knows Him.” May a similar 
disposition animate our souls, and may we for this 
reason willingly embrace all that will bring us 
greater bliss in heaven: suffering and humilia¬ 
tions, prayer and penance, labor and conflict for 
the honor of God. For this is the material of 
which the heavenly crown will be made; these are 
the pearls and jewels which will sparkle in it; but 
for the mere earthly joys, comforts, and consola¬ 
tions which we enjoy here, we have nothing to ex¬ 
pect there. 

Third Point. 

But the Divine Goodness has so ordered it that 
we are already here on earth not wholly shut out 
from participating in the heavenly bliss. There is 
a paradise on earth which, although secret and hid- 


262 Tenth Day ; Second Meditation. 

den from the world and although guarded against 
the unregenerate by the Cherubim, is nevertheless 
open to all those who are seeking God with sin¬ 
cerity. This earthly paradise is nothing but the 
inward hidden life in God , the life of faith , the con¬ 
stant familiar intercourse with God. Just as the joy 
of the blessed in heaven consists in their wholly 
living in God, those living wholly in God must 
have already here a foretaste of this bliss, so far as 
our human frailty permits. God cannot have such 
intercourse with us and cannot communicate Him¬ 
self to us in such a perfect manner as He does to 
the blessed in heaven, seeing that we are weighed 
down by the burden of our mortal bodies, rendered 
impure by our faults and sins, and because we are 
in this present life in a state of probation. But 
each even imperfect communication of His nature, 
which is all blessedness, must contain a foretaste of 
that unspeakable' sweetness which intoxicates the 
blessed in heaven. It is therefore written of un¬ 
create wisdom: “ Her conversation hath no bitter¬ 
ness, nor her company any tediousness, but joy 
and gladness. . . . There is great delight in her 
friendship and inexhaustible. riches in the works 
of her hands and in the exercise of conference with 
her, wisdom and glory in the communication of 
her words” (Wis. viii. 16-18). 

Let us then enter into this paradise of the in¬ 
ward life; let us love isolation, let us seek it so 
far as our vocation permits; let us cultivate fre¬ 
quent, secret, and familiar colloquies with the 
God of our hearts; let us look up to Him again 


263 


Of Heaven. 

and again amid our labors and occupations; let 
us ask His counsel in all our affairs; let us fly 
to Him in all our troubles; let us scorn the con¬ 
solation of the creature, and be comforted bv the 
Lord of consolation only; let us in all we tliink 
and feel and speak and do look up to Jesus with 
the eye of faith; let us in all things seek only 
Him and His most holy pleasure; let us be cruci¬ 
fied unto the world and the world unto us, and 
He will then come and take up His abode in us 
and will fill us with a peace such as the world 
cannot give. 

“ If any one love Me he will keep My word, and 
My Father will love him, and we will come to him 
and will make an abode with him. Peace I leave 
with you, My peace I give to you: not as the world 
giveth, do I give to you. Let not your heart be 
troubled, nor let it be afraid” (John xiv. 23, 27). 
Thus spoke the Lord in His last sermon to His 
apostles, and what He has there promised He ful¬ 
fils, and has always fulfilled to His people, and the 
witnesses to this are the persons of interior lives, 
those pious souls who in all Christian ages were 
wholly living in God. They all had to carry heavy 
crosses and to fight hard conflicts, and yet they were 
always of a cheerful mind, peaceful and full of trust, 
and would have exchanged their crosses and con¬ 
flicts with no one and for nothing in the world. 
Frequently, as we know from the history of their 
lives, the heavenly Inmate visited them with sensi¬ 
ble consolation, and even the smallest drop of such 
heavenly balsam was sufficient to make them forget 


264 Tenth Day ; Second Meditation. 

all their tribulations and to cause tlieir wounds to 
be liealed and tlieir strength to be renewed. And 
even when sensible consolation was sometimes 
withdrawn from them for a longer period with a 
view to their further probation, still the working of 
the spirit of God within them was all the greater, 
and in the inmost depths of their souls, in the 
sphere of their faith they always ^enjoyed that in¬ 
destructible peace which passes all understanding, 
and which was not taken from them even when 
their lower nature groaned under the burden of 
their misery. 

Let this then in conclusion be our unwaver¬ 
ing resolution: to live an interior life, ivhatever 
it may cost us. This one resolution includes all 
the others, because in the interior life lies the 
common means of persistently carrying out an} r 
resolution, whatever its nature may be. Our di¬ 
vine Lord and Bridegroom is but waiting for us 
to open to Him our inmost hearts with a sincere 
and good will. He will then Himself accomplish 
that in us of which we are in our weakness in¬ 
capable. He will then Himself fit His dwelling- 
place according to His pleasure, will more and 
more purify our hearts from all earthly defilement, 
and will adorn it with the ornaments of the fairest 
virtues and the gifts of His love. 

Amid the consolations of this familiar inter¬ 
course the time of our banishment will quickly 
pass away. Soon, very soon, the time will come 
when He will call us away from the earthly to the 
heavenly paradise, from the temporal life of faith 


Of Heaven. 


265 


to the eternal life of light, and from love exhibited 
in suffering to love manifested in joy. “ Behold I 
come quickly,” He says in the Apocalypse, “and 
My reward is with Me to render to every man ac¬ 
cording to his works. I am Alpha and Omega, 
the first and the last, the beginning and the end. 
Blessed are they that wash their robes in the blood 
of the Lamb: that they may have a right to the 
tree of life and may enter in by the gates into the 
city” (Apoc. xxii. 12-14). 


Xast Morts. 


PERSEVERANCE. 

“Watch ye and pray that ye enter not into temptation” 
(Matt. xxvi. 41). 

The ten clays of our spiritual retirement have 
now passed away, and we may liope that they have 
been to us days of salvation and a time of grace. 
We have been renewed in faith, the dust of our 
earthly intercourse, which darkened our sight, has 
been dispersed, and eternal truths stand once more 
in sharp and clear outline before our soul’s eye. 
We have been renewed in hope; the fear of God’s 
judgment saves us on the one hand from a pre¬ 
sumptuous security, and a childlike confidence in 
God keeps ns from being unnecessarily faint¬ 
hearted on the other. We have been renewed in 
love: that which burns in our hearts is no longer a 
feeble flicker of tender emotions, but the enduring 
fire of a love which strives to manifest itself in 
works and which is nourished by hearty resolu¬ 
tions. But this does not end the matter; so far it 
has been but the preparation for the conflict; we 
now come to the conflict itself. If we have put on 
our new armor, we shall now be able to test its 
quality and excellence. If we have strengthened 
and refreshed our tired members, the race-course 


Perseverance . 


267 


will now test the strength of tlie runner. If we 
have renewed our youth like the eagle, its flight 
must now furnish the proof. We thus possess 
everything necessary for a complete and glorious 
victory. But we shall only really gain it if we use 
the graces which God has given to us; if we anx¬ 
iously guard the light which we have received from 
Him; if we continue to walk steadfastly along that 
path which we have recognized as the only right 
one, departing from it neither to the left nor to the 
right. In short, these exercises can only be of 
lasting benefit if we consistently carry out the 
resolutions which we have formed in them. We 
have already seen in the course of these exercises 
how everything depends on our perseverance, how 
it alone crowns our work, and also by what means 
we are able to attain to it. But it might now in 
conclusion be helpful to consider this inexhausti¬ 
ble subject more thoroughly and to take up a 
standpoint which enables us to view the ultimate 
causes why so many do not persevere, which reveals 
to us at the same time the secret workings of the 
interior life and provides us with a key to many 
other problems. 

Of all these problems and phenomena of the 
spiritual life which fill the attentive observer with 
fear and terror, there is none more staggering than 
the sight of a hardened religious. It is, we must 
admit, by no means a rare thing to find among 
worldly peojfie souls which are hardened and which 
have been forsaken by the grace of God. But the 
impression which these make upon us does not affect 


268 


Last Words. 


us so nearly nor so mucli. They are for the most 
part persons who from their youth up have been 
neglected, misled, and corrupted, who have made 
scarcely any use at all of the most efficacious means 
of grace of our holy religion, who in many instances 
did not even know of them, whose faith had in conse¬ 
quence suffered more or less sliipw T reck, and who in 
addition had lived amid surroundings calculated to 
suppress every higher inclination, and rendering 
it, humanly speaking, impossible for them to free 
themselves from the net of. corruption in which 
they got entangled. But it is an entirely different 
case with a religious who, called to a life of per¬ 
fection, living in the house of the Lord, surrounded 
by the means of grace and holy things, has by the 
abuse of them allowed his heart to become hardened. 
When such a phenomenon occurs within the sphere 
of our own knowledge and experience, it affects us, 
and we are wounded by it in a most direct and 
personal way, and we ask ourselves, in alarm : Have 
I any surer signs of election than these had ? or 
have I a more perfect vocation ? or am I more 
zealous than these once were ? Is it, therefore, less 
possible for such a judgment to fall upon me ? If 
we want some well-known example of this kind, we 
have it in the notorious (Ekolampadius. And 
with what feelings of horror does not the history of 
his life inspire our hearts! Adorned with the 
noblest gifts and talents, he was in his youth dis¬ 
tinguished by such extraordinary piety, and led so 
moral and edifying a life, that he might have served 
as a pattern to fellow-students of his own age. We 


Perseverance. 


269 

still possess letters of that period which he wrote 
at the foot of a crucifix, and in which he testifies 
that he could only with difficulty tear himself away 
from the contemplation of the passion of the Re¬ 
deemer. In them he speaks of the bliss of familiar 
intercourse with Jesus Christ, in words breathing 
the spirit of the most tender devotion and piety. 
When he subsequently obeyed his longing after 
perfection and entered the religious state he was 
also for a long time the very pattern of a zealous 
religious wholly separated from the world. And 
yet afterward he fell — fell away not only from 
the religious vocation, but from the faith itself, 
and was one of the first of the disloyal priests 
and monks who set the example of a union dis¬ 
honorable in the eyes of God. It was he who with 
diabolical eloquence wrote a book against the 
substantial presence of Jesus Christ in the Most 
Holy Sacrament of the Altar, and finally died as 
he had lived, in twofold apostasy : in hatred toward 
the Catholic Church and weighed down with the 
burden of her anathemas. 

But saddening as these and similar experiences 
are, they are rendered less terrible by the truth that 
God never forsakes any one who has not first for¬ 
saken Him and who has not first become disloyal 
in the matter of His graces and inspirations. 
When St. Teresa was once in doubt and troubled 
with regard to her religious state, the Lord said 
to her: “ My daughter, light is very different from 
darkness; I am faithful to My promises. None 
can perish without knowing it,” No one, there- 


270 


Last Words. 


fore, will tlius sink into a hardened state of heart 
who has not previously received many exhortations 
and who has not experienced moments of illumina¬ 
tion, in which he recognized the evil state of his 
soul and his own dangerous position, but took no 
heed of them. Just as physical nature never works 
by leaps and bounds, but develops all things gradu¬ 
ally step by step until they reach *a certain ripeness 
and completeness; just as day never changes into 
night all at once, but declining gradually first 
passes into twilight, so it is with the spiritual life. 
There is also a spiritual twilight. There are signs 
and forerunners which precede the sinking day of 
the spirit. We may regard it as a sign of this sort 
when one experiences a sense of disgust and isola¬ 
tion at prayer and spiritual exercises, and, exerting 
no power whatever to overcome it, performs the 
exercises without spirit and escapes from them as 
soon as an excuse can be found; when, on the 
other hand, one finds pleasure in distraction and 
entertainment, seeks to gratify it, loves intercourse 
with worldly persons, and on every occasion grati¬ 
fies curiosity; when one cannot make friends with 
holy poverty, with penance and bodily austerity, 
but, on the contrary, is ever eager to nurse the 
body, to pamper it with comforts, and is keenly 
sensitive to any denial in this direction; when 
one always follows only one’s own will and obsti¬ 
nately persists in one’s own opinions; when one 
frequently and with open eyes transgresses rules, 
obeys superiors with difficulty and dislike, mur¬ 
murs against their directions, discloses any feeling 


Perseverance. 


271 


against them to others rather than to them, and 
habitually act behind their backs; when one enter¬ 
tains great regard and esteem for self, hates all 
humiliations, becomes estranged from the brethren 
and their fraternal love, no longer esteems the rules 
of the saints, but on the contrary inclines to the 
rules of the world and nourishes a secret pleasure 
in all kinds of worldly vanities; when one finally 
altogether lives a life according to nature and not 
according to faith, is cast hither and thither by 
changing moods and fancies, is conquered by every 
temptation, must have every desire and fancy grati¬ 
fied, and has no longer the moral power to prac¬ 
tise self-denial in any thing. Let those who perceive 
such signs in themselves and perceive them they 
must, seeing that it is impossible to overlook them 
—let them be on their guard and, with the Prophet 
Isaias, ask their conscience, the watchman of their 
souls: “ What hast thou seen?” And the watch¬ 
man will answer in the words of the same prophet: 
“ The morning cometli, also the night: if you seek, 
seek: return, come” (Is. xxi. 12). And if they have 
heard the watchman’s warning voice, it will surely 
be high time to struggle against the darkness clos¬ 
ing in from every side, and to exclaim and pray 
from the very depths of their hearts: Lord, abide 
with me; it is toward evening and the day is far 
spent. If they neglect this, if they neglect even now 
to awaken from sleep and to kindle the light of 
faith afresh in their hearts, the remaining portions 
of the soul still illuminated by the sinking sun of 
grace will gradually be wrapped in darkness, 


272 


Last Words. 


whicli, deepening more and more, will finally close 
in with the night of mortal sin. When such a 
religious has fallen into mortal sin, it is possible 
that so great a fall may awaken him out of his 
state of insensibility, restore him to recollection 
and contrition, and lead him to a real conversion. 
This is possible, but, as we have already seen in 
the course of our exercises, it happens but seldom. 
For in the case of a religious the lapse into mortal 
sin is for the most part not sudden and striking, 
but rather gradual and imperceptible, and the dis¬ 
turbance occasioned by the fall is not so violent 
and effective. This much is certain in any case: 
if such a religious is not after the fall animated by 
a spirit of sincere penitence and does not instantly 
put it into operation, he will advance w T ith big 
strides on the path of destruction. 

In the case of priests and religious mortal 
sin is always followed by a host of terrible sacri¬ 
leges. Everything holy which a priest touches 
in a state of sin becomes to him a source of de¬ 
struction, and there is fulfilled in him what is said 
of the traitor Judas, the type of all traitorous and 
God-dishonoring priests of the New Testament: 
“And he loved cursing, and it shall come unto 
him: and he would not have blessing, and it shall 
be far from him. And he put on cursing like a 
garment, and it went in like water into his entrails 
and like oil in his bones. May it be unto him like 
a garment which coveretli him and like a girdle 
with which he is girded continually” (Ps. cviii. 18, 
19). Whenever a priest in a state of sin puts on 


Perseverance . 


273 


tlie sacred vestments, lie puts on a garment of curs¬ 
ing ; whenever lie girds himself with the consecrated 
cingulum, he puts on a girdle of cursing; whenever 
he raises his hand in order to bless, he pronounces 
a curse upon himself; whenever he approaches the 
holy sacraments to open the fountains of salvation 
to the faithful, there streams down upon himself a 
stream of curses. Whenever he offers the unbloody 
sacrifice of reconciliation in order to bring down 
grace and blessing upon Christian people, he draws 
down upon himself judgment and damnation. 
“When he is judged,” says the same Psalm (cviii. 
7), “may he go out condemned; and may his 
prayer be turned into sin.” But the usual conse¬ 
quence of the sin of robbing God, and the peculiar 
punishment with which He visits it, is an incurable 
blinding of the spirit, a darkening of the mind, and 
a hardening of the heart; for the misuse of the 
spiritual means of grace has an effect contrary to 
that attending its proper use. St. John Chry¬ 
sostom therefore rightly lays down the following 
rule, to which there are but few exceptions: “In 
sacerdotio peccasti: periisti ”—“As a priest, as one 
consecrated to God, thou hast sinned and thou art 
lost.” It is easier to convert street robbers than to 
convert such robbers of God; for where could 
something holy and salutary, capable of healing 
the wounds of their souls, be still found for them 
after, to use the words of the Apostle, “ they have 
esteemed the blood of the testament unclean with 
which they were sanctified, and have offered an 
affront to the spirit of grace” (Heb. x. 29). As 


274 


Last Words. • 


tlie Lord said to Blessed Margaret Mary Alacoque: 
It is either despair or apathy which forms the im¬ 
penetrable bulwark behind which they entrench 
themselves and whereby they frustrate all efforts 
at conversion. But if this perversion of senseless 
pride does not even admit of their confessing their 
misery, they boldly deny what is so manifestly 
plain, justify their shame, mock ht the rules of the 
saints, revile what they no longer understand, walk 
in the ways of Cain and Balaam, and finally perish 
in the gainsaying of Core. 

This, then, is the path on which a religious may 
travel step by step to complete hardening of the 
heart, and it is thus a confirmation of the comfort¬ 
ing truth that no one can fall into such a miserable 
state without perceiving it. If a religious has once 
adopted the spiritual life with a sincere heart, it is 
impossible for that heart to be turned suddenly 
and without preceding signs and warnings into a 
vessel of wrath. The faithful and merciful God 
does not permit such a thing; He does not give 
such power to Satan. But this same comforting 
truth also shows us the safest means of guarding 
against such a misfortune, which is none other 
than that which we resort to in the case of any 
danger suddenly coming upon us, namely : constant 
and untiring watchfulness. We must therefore 
keep watch over ourselves lest the eneni 3 r creep se¬ 
cretly into our heart, and because, as the Psalmist 
says, “Unless the Lord keep the city, he watclietli 
in vain that keepetli it”; we must not merely watch 
.without ceasing , but also pray without ceasing. 


Perseverance. 275 

“ Watch and pray that ye enter not into tempta¬ 
tion.” 

This watchfulness is to extend to all that takes 
place in our inner life, to all the movements and 
impulses of our hearts, to all that we think and 
feel, that we desire and abhor, that we hope and 
fear, or in which we rejoice or are made sad. “ My 
soul is continually in my hands,” says David, 
“and I have not forgotten Thy law” (Ps. cxviii. 
109), and this means: I have myself always under 
control, I always know what takes place within me, 
what my soul desires, what it is doing, therefore 
have I not forgotten Thy law. But as our human 
weakness is so great that we cannot constantly 
exercise ourselves in this watchfulness, we must 
recollect our minds amid our ordinary occupa¬ 
tions several times each day, hold counsel with our¬ 
selves for a few moments, cast a sharp glance into 
our inner life in order to see whether we are still 
living and striving in faith or whether we have 
lapsed again into a purely natural life and work. 
The chief practice of this watchfulness, however, 
should be our ordinary nightly examination of con¬ 
science. And we must not content ourselves with 
merely casting a superficial glance at our several 
faults, but we must also examine their beginnings, 
their causes, and consequences. We must ask our¬ 
selves why we committed this or that fault, and why 
in this or that point we did not remain true to our 
resolutions; what has during the day disturbed the 
peace of our souls; why it has caused us to be 
tempted and disquieted, and to what degree we have 


276 


Last Words. 


striven against it. Only sucli a searching of con¬ 
science can be called thorough and can lead to that 
self-knowledge which frustrates all the delusions of 
nature and of Satan. It is an excellent practice to 
take notes every day and to close the account at 
certain times on the monthly day of recollection, 
just as a careful merchant makes up his accounts 
at stated times in order to see litow it stands with 
his business, how his affairs should be arranged, 
and how the largest possible profit is to be secured. 

But if we desire to be quite secure we must yet 
add a particular to this general watchfulness; we 
must each direct our special attention to that ten¬ 
dency of mind to which our nature most inclines, 
which exercises the greatest influence and power 
over it, and which is for that reason called our rul¬ 
ing passion . We all possess such a ruling passion. 
With one it is pride, with another vanity, with yet 
another sensuality, or indolence, or levity, or sad¬ 
ness, or faint-heartedness, etc. But of whatever 
kind it may be, it is capable of gradually pervert¬ 
ing the entire man, of suppressing his other good 
qualities, and of finally causing his destruction, if 
it be overlooked or only indifferently contended 
against, as we have already considered in the 
course of our exercises. Wherever it happens that 
some one who has stood very high has fallen very, 
low, his fall may certainly be attributed to this 
cause. We must, therefore, always keep an eye 
upon our ruling passion, make diligent and par¬ 
ticular examination respecting it, search it out 
when inquiring more generally into our faults, see- 


Perseverance. 


277 


ing tliat it is for the most part its secret cause, and 
altogether make it the central point toward which 
we direct all our spiritual exercises. How to con¬ 
quer this passion should be the end of all our 
meditations, the chief object of our resolutions, of 
our longings, and ejaculatory prayers. And for 
this end we should daily make our fervent suppli¬ 
cation to Jesus Christ during holy Mass or com¬ 
munion, and strive in works of penance and morti¬ 
fication, so that all our power of spiritual warfare 
may be directed against the most dangerous enemy 
of our salvation, and that no standing-room may 
be given him. If w r o have once succeeded in break¬ 
ing his power by the constant war we wage against 
him, we have destroyed his influence, and have 
established in us the reign of the corresponding 
virtue with which all the other virtues will find 
their way into our hearts. 

But a very particular watchfulness is most of all 
needed when the danger is no longer far off but 
very near to us, when in fact a temptation lias over¬ 
taken us. We all know' from our personal experi¬ 
ence what is meant by this in the spiritual life, be¬ 
cause no one is exempt from such trials of faith 
and steadfastness. Just as the invisible vapor 
which arises from the earth sometimes accumulates 
and forms a fog which conceals the light of the sun, 
so the secret inclinations and desires of our hearts 
sometimes form a spiritual fog which darkens the 
light of our understanding, and has the effect of 
making us incapable of discerning the simplest 
ascetic truths in their plain meaning, because they 


278 


La fit Words. 


fail at sucli a time to correspond with the inclina¬ 
tions of our nature. But no temptation of this 
kind is so sudden or deceptive that we could not 
discern and suspect it at the beginning. When 
we are in darkness, we have at least the conscious¬ 
ness that a spirit other than the Spirit of God is 
working in us; and even if there be no other signs 
of it, it is confirmed by the disturbed rest of our 
hearts, since the Spirit of God, although working 
mightily and powerfully, nevertheless acts upon us 
in a peaceful way, and it is only when we resist 
His impulses and when our nature and Satan move 
us that unrest and disturbance enter our souls. 
If, therefore, we find ourselves in such a state, we 
are to remember that exhortation which Our 
Saviour addressed to His disciples at the Mount of 
Olives. We are to watch and distrust ourselves 
and to start with the conviction that our natural 
discernment presents everything to us in a false 
and perverted light, and that, if we follow it, it will, 
like a . will-o’-the-wisp, lead us into a spiritual 
swamp or bog. But we are also to pray and to 
ask the Father of light to enlighten us so that the 
darkness may not overwhelm us, and we must take 
the first opportunity of hastening to the feet of 
Jesus Christ in the Most Blessed Sacrament of the 
Altar in order to obtain His grace and blessing for 
this spiritual conflict. And we are not to rise from 
our prayers until we are fully confirmed in the 
resolution to act wholly according to faith and 
without regard to the desires of the flesh, and to do 
what we know to be-the will of God, however hard 


Perseverance. 


279 


it may seem to us. But in order that we may be 
sure of acting according to the will of God, we must 
not omit disclosing the whole matter to our relig¬ 
ious superior or the director of our conscience, and 
subjecting ourselves to his judgment with child¬ 
like simplicity and with the setting aside of our 
own opinions. Those who thus watch and pray 
in temptation will certainly always overcome it to 
their own great merit; those who neglect this will 
fall from one delusion into another. And each 
temptation, not thoroughly overcome and remain¬ 
ing in the heart, is like a thorn left in a wound, 
causing it to fester and to pass into an incurable 
ulcer. 

It is then this threefold watchfulness which 
affords us the greatest security against the enemies 
of our salvation, and which makes it impossible for 
them to allure us from the right path and to sow 
weeds among the wheat of our good resolutions. 
It cannot be denied that the continual exercise of 
this watchfulness calls at first for much effort, pa¬ 
tience, and self-denial; but we cannot take the 
Kingdom of God except by violence, and we always 
have the consolation of knowing that those who 
have become skilled in this matter have done what 
they can do and have overcome the greatest of all 
difficulties. The whole of the interior life, upon 
which we have determined to enter with the close 
of our exercises, consists in watching and praying, 
in being in a constant state of attention with regard 
to ourselves, having one eye fixed upon ourselves 
and the other upon God. And in prayer and 


280 


Last Words. 


watchfulness* consists also that cooperation with 
Him which God demands of us in order that He 
may give us perfect control over our corrupt pas¬ 
sions. Let us, therefore, be faithful aud constant 
in the exercise of these virtues, and we need then 
have no fear of becoming hardened in heart. 
“ Light is a thing very different from darkness. 
I am faithful to my promises.” Then the grace 
of Him who thus spoke—Jesus Christ, our most 
faithful Mediator and Redeemer—will never leave 
us; He Himself will be our guide and pilot through¬ 
out the perilous journey of life, and He will with 
a firm hand guide our vessel through storm and 
tempest until it safely reaches the haven of eternal 
peace.—Amen. 


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